The Allure Of Sympathy

The conversation or thought process of many people who want to make the choice of depression is predictable. They want to think that others can get out of depression, but that they cannot. They put themselves in a category that cannot repent, for “others have not had as hard a life as I have.”

I have talked to many depressed people, and I have noticed a pattern of excuses for those who do not want to let go of depression. “Happiness, good things, and nice clothes are all for someone else, not me. I am a loser, a failure, not worthy. I feel as if I have never been a help to anyone nor has anyone helped me. I do not know if I have enough fight in me to get out of depression. I feel very unimportant, forgotten.” Note: all of this is a horizontal focus on man and circumstance, and not a vertical focus on God and His Kingdom or church. It is all a focus on a comparison of self to other people and their standards. Why? This person’s stronghold or idol is sympathy of men. This person’s false god is in looking for sympathy from other people—not from the Heavens. Empathy, sympathy, and consideration by men are all the same thing and very alluring. The problem is that they do not fill you up; they leave you empty and desperate, because eventually those around you will no longer give it to you, so you have to find new people to stroke you, praise you, flatter you. No one wants to be around this. God is what you need. Men’s praise is empty. “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”  Proverbs 29:25

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