by Ed Ostrom

Created on: December 15, 2010

Over a quarter of a century ago I was privileged to work at The Anti Suicide Bureau in a large Western Canadian City. At the time that I was employed there, many people were under the impression that the Christmas Season, was the time of year was suicide attempts and completions were the highest. All though such a statement makes good press copy, the actual truth is that the highest rates of suicide happen during the spring months.  In the spring months everyone is eagerly anticipating change. Everything is coming up green, replacing the bleakness and the “grey slush days” of winter, with vibrancy and a sense of newness. But the suicidal depressed individuals are not eagerly expecting or anticipating change. Life for them continues to be bleak, forlorn and hopeless. It is then the guilt and shame of their own failings haunts them, and many try to end it all through suicide.

But now, having stated all the preceding facts I am aware that there are many people who find the Christmas Season very bleak and depressive. Their lives are marked by hopelessness, haplessness and helplessness. They find themselves during this “most wondrous time of the year” being depressed, filled with despair and self loathing.  Christmas takes on a “blue hue” for them. Because of their depressive feelings and self hatred they become living examples of Elvis’s song “It going to be a Blue Blue Christmas!”

The Christmas Season can be a cold harsh reality for many people. A sense of loneliness can grip many hearts... A desperate foreboding of despair can overwhelm the tender hearts of people, filling them with sadness and an overwhelming feeling of despair.  People can begin to feel trapped and think that there is no way out. One can become so desperate that they can not see the light at the end of the tunnel. They feel helpless, hapless and hopeless. Yet, in spite of how they feel, and what they think, they can come to the place where God touches their hearts, and draws them to Himself and ministers in love to them.

Because God is with us, Immanuel, I believe that it is possible to overcome our depressive feelings and discover afresh again, the presence of Jesus Christ. We can know and feel the blessing of God in our lives, even during the Christmas season.

The Psalmist in Psalm 42:11 and Psalm 43: 5 declares “Why are you cast down my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise

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