Page 13 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 1

ISSUE ONE | JULY/AUG
spiritual and the same thing ..it goes both ways. So if we’re not grounded strong and healthy. If I had opened
in the spiritual then our minds our bodies our brains are susceptible that drawer and decided that ‘I
to disease... Dis – ease. And the brain chemistry responds to that and can’t’ at that moment, you know.”
starts forming a depressive metabolic reaction. The synapses that are Samuel says, “you’d have lost the
sending out the dopamine andsoon, they’re not received because the entire story.” To which Sharon
brain chemistry has been altered. And so yeah there IS such a thing as responds quietly, “yeah.”
clinical depression but it’s been caused by I believe, outside forces. I think that a lot of times people
As somebody who treats people with depression, and having don’t dare make certain decisions
experienced it, I believe that our brains can be rewired back to the way that will make them stand out or
they were intended to be. We’re broken anyway but we don’t have to be be a beacon because they’re afraid
that broken. We don’t have to be that ill where some are ready to take of what people will think or say or
their own lives, they’re so depressed. They just don’t feel fulfilled they do. Would you say that boldness
don’t see any hope for the future, there’s too much pain in their lives they has been one of the keys?
feel unloved, disconnected. Sharon answers, ”Yeah. His
People look for their identity outwardly in these projected images of boldness and obedience kick-
themselves. So what I try to do is bring the person back to who they are, started this whole thing. Him
find their positive affirmations because they have them and then get them being the man of God that he is
to believe in themselves and not care so much about what everybody else and running after God’s heart even
thinks or comparing themselves to everybody else, reminding them that when he didn’t feel like it, even
they are God’s children that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. So when he was depressed. So it’s
it’s almost like in the counselor’s chair I’ll start preaching in a way about a beautiful ministry, I suppose, or
how Christ loved us so much and forgives us and gave the ultimate example for those who are afraid
price that He’s forgiven us, so why would we not forgive ourselves. We to make that decision for those
have to forgive ourselves. That forgiveness of others yes you have to do who are holding back.”
that and we forgive others not necessarily for their benefit but for ours.
I teach them about forgiving others but also about forgiving themselves
and when you are able to forgive yourself it opens up that conduit that
God wants us to have with Him, that relationship of God in and through
us and illuminating to others. If we don’t have the forgiveness then it’s
blocked or the light that we do have in Christ it’s got shade over it, it’s
not quite complete. We must love ourselves because God loves us and
has proven it and proven it over and over and over so if He forgives us
then we are required really to internalize that and to love ourselves so
that we can truly love others. We can’t really truly love another person in
a full and complete way unless we love ourselves as God loves us and
give ourselves grace. That’s another thing, there’s a whole book on that
really that could be written. But if we can connect with God through that,
I believe that’s a cure for depression. It really is. And it was very key in
my restoration was the forgiveness factor and then coming down to the
list of everybody that wronged me that I had to forgive, then it was like
this ‘ding!’ you gotta forgive yourself. So we live in that continuous flow
of grace and forgiveness that God gives us that must exude out of us as
well. I think it’s key for restoration from depression.”
Sharon thinks back to when David arrived in Nairobi and she was
helping him unpack and found a drawer full of medication when she had
panicked for a moment but then “I held on to that reminder of God being
the One Who put us together so it means He knows I can handle it. This
is for me, so.” She is now able to celebrate a whole new outcome that
God brought out in the present, “He doesn’t take any medication. He’s
absolutely medication free. Even when we went for that medical check-
up the doctor declared him the healthiest man of his age he’s seen. He’s

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