My friends I crave your indulgence as I share a few thoughts on LONELINESS AND DEPRESSION.  You can be married and lonely. You can work in a busy call center in an open office space and be lonely.  You can have visitors in your house regularly and be lonely.  You can dance in a fully-packed stripper’s night club every evening and commit suicide because of loneliness, emptiness and a sense of abandonment.

You can preach about loneliness and depression and die of loneliness.  Pastors talk about new life yet many of them battle depression and sometimes loneliness.

Many Pastors, Artists, Corporate leaders and public figures assume depression is embarrassing and a sign of weakness.  There are a lot of leaders and influential people suffering depression silently and ignorantly.  You can’t deal with an enemy that you don’t identify.

• The first step in war is to identify the enemy.
•  The second step is to identify the strategies and strengths of the enemy.

You can be prayerful and committed in your church and be lonely.  You can act strong publicly and die of loneliness. The fact that someone is smiling doesn’t imply all is well.  Always go beyond the mask they are wearing and the walls they are building and engage those close to you passionately.  The more lonely one is, the higher the defense walls they build, to block anyone from finding out about their silent suffering.

Hiding Places

Some hide in drugs.  Others hide in alcohol.  Some hide in work.  Others hide in movies and loud music. Some hide in prophecy, revelations and the supernatural.  They want you to believe they are operating on a higher spiritual dimension to intimidate your quest into their privacy.  Some simply become too hostile to talk.  While majority withdraw from conversations and/or from socializing with family and friends.

Appoint someone as a Vulnerability Partner

The bottom-line is that loneliness kills.  Loneliness is the breeding ground of depression.  You know you are not lonely when you are vulnerable to two or three people.  You are a free spirit when you can consistently share your deepest concerns, fears and worries with two or three people.  People you can tell about your financial mess, sexual struggles and relational crisis in raw form.  Who are you vulnerable to?

Thanks for reading.

Ishmael Watkins

I.S.H Empowerment Ministries