Television and French Fries

I will never forget that Tuesday afternoon. It was a cold rainy day but I was excited about beginning my teaching ministry at a Bible College less than two weeks. At about 3:30 there was a knock at my door. The college principal had come to tell me that I would not be teaching my class. The student who planned on taking the class had decided not to. I had spent six months preparing the notes for that class. And then in one moment something that I had been working on since February was taken away from me.

The initial anger turned into frustration. And that frustration soon became depression. By 3:45 I was dealing with the depression in my usual way. That involved lying on the couch while watching huge amounts of television. For almost seven hours I laid there in front of the tv. The only other thing I did was make a quick trip to the grocery store. There I bought the other half of my usual response to depression, French fries.

It is amazing what a person will do when they are discouraged or broken hearted. We should deal with the pain and ask God for strength and help in that time of need. Or we should call a close friend and share with them the painful feelings in our hearts. But that is not what we do. Normally we will try everything in our power to take that pain away. Ignoring the depression or alleviating the pain for a short time is much better than dealing with it. Because by facing our feelings of hurt or frustration we will experience even more pain.

So we “medicate” our pain with different things. Some of these are addictive and will drive us farther away from God. But most are not sinful at all. My drug of choice when dealing with depression is French fries and television. I enjoy it because for a few hours I forget all about the pain that is in my heart. But at some point the French fries will all be eaten, and I will have to turn off the television.

In that moment I usually realize that I totally wasted hours of my day. Not only that, but I spent the same amount of time eating French fries that had no nutritional value whatsoever! On top of that there is guilt from using French fries and tv instead of God to deal with my pain. So I usually found myself feeling worse than when I started!

Is it really worth trying to escape our pain when we feel worse afterwards? I am thankful that God has shown me a better way to deal with depression and discouragement. But step one for me is usually the hardest. It simply involves facing the pain instead of trying to escape or medicate it. Then God is able to give me his peace even in the midst of the pain. But it all begins with my deciding to embrace my pain instead of running from it.