By Wang Jing
Depression Broke Into My Family
Depression has become widely known over these years. Many people, regardless of whether they are officials, celebrities, students or wage earners, are tormented by it. In the past, I only saw the word depression on the news, and never thought that my own kith and kin would be a victim of it.
My daughter once had a happy family. My son-in-law was an outgoing and friendly man who ran a barber shop. Though he didn’t earn much money, he lived freely with little competitive pressure. But after having a child, they were unable to make ends meet. My son-in-law was full of envy when he saw many of his peers have cars. To improve the quality of his life, he closed his shop and went to work in a large hairdressing salon. To gain a foothold there, he worked from dawn till dusk, often returning home around midnight, and he often went to Beijing and South Korea for advanced study at his own expense. For in his line, only if one constantly improves himself can he attract and retain customers to avoid being eliminated. As each day grew, my son-in-law became gloomy and taciturn and smiled much less. Once he said that the company required every employee to fulfill a turnover of more than 60,000 yuan a month, and that those who failed to fulfill the quota would have to crawl three times around the table and bark like a dog in the presence of all at the monthly meeting. In order to not make a fool of themselves, some of his colleagues fulfilled the turnover with their own money. In the company, those who were silver-tongued and obsequious to the supervisor would be promoted. My son-in-law hated what his supervisor did and never flattered him, so he encountered violent opposition from his supervisor. In the face of these pressures, he didn’t want to work there. However, when he thought that many of his colleagues had got houses and cars, he couldn’t bring himself to quit. As a result, he fell into conflicting feelings and couldn’t extricate himself, and gradually he became silent and irascible. Afterward, his condition went from bad to worse, to the extent that he often said that he wanted to die to end his misery, and he also asked my daughter to raise their kid. Seeing this, we sent him to the hospital for an examination, and he was diagnosed with depression by the psychiatrist. When he was in the hospital, I saw that most of the depressives were young people who developed depression due to the stress from car loans, housing loans, work or emotions. There were even some teenagers developing depression due to the pressure of study. I couldn’t understand why these young people, who should lead an active and cheerful life, suffered from depression.
Why Do the Contemporary Young People Live in Depression?
Later, I hit upon a report on the internet, which said that the incidence rate of depression in China is higher than the world’s average. The number of depressives reaches 90 million and more than 100,000 depressives commit suicide each year. According to a survey, the pressure of work, employment, and the mind on young people is most acute; and they also experience great pressure from society, housing, and raising children. If these pressures can’t be relieved for a long time, it will be easy for young people to get depression. After reading this report, I thought: What caused these young people to live in such pain and depression in today’s society?
The Root of Depression
One day, Sister Wang of my church came to visit me. Learning my confusion, she took out a tablet computer from her handbag, and then read a passage of God’s words, “What does Satan use to keep man firmly within its control? (Fame and gain.) So, Satan uses fame and gain to control man’s thoughts, until all people can think of is fame and gain. They struggle for fame and gain, suffer hardships for fame and gain, endure humiliation for fame and gain, sacrifice everything they have for fame and gain, and they will make any judgment or decision for the sake of fame and gain. In this way, Satan binds people with invisible shackles, and they have neither the strength nor the courage to throw them off. They unknowingly bear these shackles and trudge ever onward with great difficulty. For the sake of this fame and gain, mankind shuns God and betrays Him and becomes increasingly wicked. In this way, therefore, one generation after another is destroyed in the midst of Satan’s fame and gain” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”). The sister integrated these words to fellowship with me, “Why do the young people live under intense pressure and become depressed? It is because Satan has kept men penned in and controlled through fame and gain. It misleads us to think that once we have fame and gain, we can then enjoy high status and great wealth, live towering above others, and obtain the high regard of all. It makes us foster such lofty ideals so that we all strive with all our might to pursue fame and gain. As a result, we are inextricably trapped in this Satan’s thoughts. And when we fail to achieve our goals or ideals, we will plunge into confusion and agony and can’t extricate ourselves. Just like your son-in-law, because he was envious of those who had cars and houses and wished he could possess these to obtain others’ respect, he spent a lot of effort struggling for these, living in suffering. However, he failed to achieve his goal, which caused him to sink into pain. Under the combined pressure of life and mind, he was always in a state of nervous tension, which drove him to the brink of falling apart. And he even wanted to die to escape the suffering. From this we can see that, the young people all live by the life outlook instilled by Satan, pursue success and towering above others, and spend their life seeking fame, gain, and status. When they are unable to achieve their desires, they feel depressed and even want to die. At this time, they have been lured into a nest of devils by Satan, without any strength to resist. Finally, Satan takes men into hell and achieves its sinister purpose of abusing and devouring men.”
After listening to the sister’s fellowship, I felt that the means Satan uses to harm men is so diabolical, and that fame and gain is such a great bondage to mankind. Even we old people, who have gone through the ups and downs in life, are unable to escape from the bondage of fame and gain, let alone the young people. Then I asked the sister, “Since Satan harms us so much, is there any way for us to free ourselves from it?”
The Way to Come out of Depression
The sister fellowshiped with me, “If we wish to solve these pains, we should come before God. For without the guidance of God, the ignorant humanity can never see through Satan’s sinister intention or scheme of afflicting men, but will still think that pursuing fame and gain is proper and is the manifestation of their desire to advance. Thereby, they will inevitably continue to suffer the harm of Satan. Let’s read some more of God’s words and then you can understand better. ‘There is an exceedingly simple way to free oneself from this state, which is to bid farewell to one’s former way of living; to say goodbye to one’s previous goals in life; to summarize and analyze one’s previous lifestyle, view of life, pursuits, desires, and ideals; and then to compare them with God’s will and demands for man, and see whether any of them is consistent with God’s will and demands, whether any of them delivers the right values of life, leads one to a greater understanding of the truth, and allows one to live with humanity and the likeness of a human being. When you repeatedly investigate and carefully dissect the various goals that people pursue in life and their myriad ways of living, you will find not one of them conforms to the Creator’s original intention with which He created humanity. All of them draw people away from the Creator’s sovereignty and care; they are all traps which cause people to become depraved, and which lead them to hell. After you recognize this, your task is to lay aside your old view of life, stay far from various traps, let God take charge of your life and make arrangements for you; it is to try only to submit to God’s orchestrations and guidance, to live without individual choice, and to become a person who worships God’ (“God Himself, the Unique III”). Therefore, only when we come before God and receive His salvation, can we change our way of living as well as the erroneous views of life and values Satan instilled into us, and cast off the bitter life brought by Satan.”
After hearing the sister’s fellowship, I was no longer grievous and knew how to help my son-in-law. I believe that as long as we genuinely rely on God and live according to His word, my son-in-law will escape from the bondage and harm of Satan, and come out of depression. For God’s words are the truth which can bestow life upon man and show man the way.
