Melancholy and Joy

August 14, 2018

“What if melancholy were as much a gift from God as is joy?” A pastor friend and I were talking about why we are in ministry. We both have struggled with melancholy, and I was commenting on how at times I wished I could feel the joy that just seems to pour out of some people. “But melancholy keeps us anchored to God; sometimes those who are always happy are also pretty flighty,” he said (or words to that effect). 

A Jewish friend joined us. He’s a pretty upbeat, laid back fellow, but doesn’t consider himself religious, so I asked him how he would describe joy. He thought for a minute before deciding on the word “contentment.” 

“I think some of the people who are happy all the time just don’t ever think,” he added. I shared with him my story of melancholy and how I began to win that battle when I started giving thanks for everything.

“I have to choose every day to be thankful,” I said.

“I understand. You have to look for the good. The bad finds you,” was his response. 

This world can be a sad and tragic place. It doesn’t take any brains to see the evil all around us, and it can overwhelm all but the most innocent of people if we aren’t careful. Set your mind on things above,” St. Paul reminded us. The important word here is “Set.” For many of us, our minds gravitate to all that is wrong in life, as surely as water flows downhill. We have to drive a stake into the ground and plant our minds on that which uplifts, because apart from that grounding, our minds will follow the path of least resistance. So again tonight, I choose thankfulness; for conversations with friends that sharpen my own thinking and resolve, and even for the melancholy I fought for so many years. I think it may indeed have been God’s gift to me, to keep me seeking him and helping me avoid flitting from one experiential high to another, seeking an elusive experience of God rather than God himself.