My brother was a tireless humanitarian. Skilled in business, he instead spent many of his years tirelessly advocating for the less fortunate. Joe spent some time as a peace-keeper in Bosnia during the crisis there. While he was in the United States, he worked for a senator and strongly advocated for reading programs for underprivileged students in the inner city of Washington D.C. He also worked hard to get similar programs started on Native American Reservations. This was a man who didn’t have much, but emptied his wallet every time he passed a homeless person on the streets. Charming, intelligent, gentle, kind and attractive - Joe Hein was looked up to by others for inspiration and hope.

On this day fourteen years ago, we lost my brother to depression.

Depression has seen increasing awareness in recent years. Yet, despite all of the advancements in awareness and treatment, depression is still treated as something of an anomaly in the church. Struggles with depression do not fit into a paradigm where the gospel message is something of “Jesus died for your sins so you can be happy and live comfortably.” So, we don’t talk about these issues. We pretend they don’t exist. We make statements like “if you struggle with depression, you don’t have enough faith.” People who struggled with depression are forced even deeper into the haze as they feel unable to share their burdens with others.

I will say this as kindly as I can: if your theology does not allow for a very real and very present struggle with depression in the Christian life, then you don’t understand the deceitfulness of sin and death in this world.

Now, I can’t speak to the medical or chemical causes behind depression. Nor could I speak to the proper course of medication and counseling for those going through this struggle. However, what I do know is that God gives us a framework for helping people who fight depression in the church.

The teaching of adoption is one that is sadly not understood and hardly preached in today’s church. No, I’m not talking about our physical adoption of children in need. I’m talking about how we were in need and became spiritually (and someday, physically) adopted as children. When God justifies us and saves us from our sins, that isn’t the end of the story. When God saves us, he adopts us. The Apostle Paul tells us that because we have received adoption as sons and daughters, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:5-6).

Adoption is the height of our privilege as God’s people. This doctrine reminds us that in our salvation we are brought into a covenant family. While we were formerly separate from God and walking in darkness, we are now “called children of God, and so we are” (1 John 3:1). As we become sons and daughters in our vertical relationship to God, we become brothers and sisters in our horizontal relationship to one another.

Today’s society wants us to believe that our worth and value is based on our own decisions and merit. Society says that worth and value are measured by your job, performance, charity, or your sexuality. If you haven’t found your worth in these things, then you need to keep looking until you’re fulfilled. Is it any wonder then that depression is on the rise with every passing year? Failing to achieve these standards of worth only sets us up for doubt and disappointment.

In stark contrast, the Christian stands up boldly and cries out, “No! You are worth so much more than that!” Human beings have inherent value because they are made in the image of God. This value is further defined when we are renewed and come into the family of God. A Christian’s value, worth or merit is not found in themselves, but it is found in the very fact that they belong to a loving Father.

Christians are held in a dual, eternal and loving grip. John 10:28-29 tells us that we are not only held tightly in Christ’s hands, but also grasped and held tight by the hands of the Father. When the nails went into his body and his hands clenched in pain, he was clenching his hands around the security of God’s children with a divine love that no man can fathom. This too is the love that we show for those in the family of God. No matter what they’re going through, no matter how dirty or painful it is, we are the extension of that divine grip around the family of God.

I too will say this as kindly as I can: if your theology does not call for the all-out pursuit and extension of divine love through us and toward members of the family of God, then you do not properly understand the gospel.

Even though my family belonged to a church, no one came around when my brother was struggling with his depression. There was no support, there was no encouragement. Even after his passing, the church had no conception of how to care for our family. I’m not blaming them for anything, yet they clearly had no idea of what it meant to be adopted. They had no theology that called for taking care of one another in God’s family.

Because our worth is found not in the things of this world but in the arms of a loving father, there is no effort, no amount of time, no amount of love that is too much for the people of God to give to those in our midst going through any kind of struggle. That is simply what family does; they care for and love one another when all other lights go out.

And thus we see that understanding our adoption as sons and daughters into God’s family is absolutely necessary. We need to understand how we are meant to love and be loved. Understanding our adoption is the remedy for combating the self-centered and depression-inducing society we live in. Helping people to grasp the immense love for them in Christ and the family of God which stands in contrast to the individualistic self-ism of our society is our job. If we get this, then we will know how to pursue those in our midst who have very real issues with depression or any other struggle.

If you call yourself a Christian but aren’t attached to any local body of Christians, I’d like to challenge you with this: do you really understand what God is calling you to? Do you understand what it means to be adopted into God’s family? Do you understand that the gospel isn’t simply about what you’re saved from but what you’re saved to? That the gospel isn’t just about feeling God inside you? We need you. Hurting people need you. And you need us. Please, don’t neglect your family.