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Lesson Seven: -Depression- The Unlikely Foe At least from a surface perspective, the United States of America should be one of the happiest nations ever to grace the planet. Most parts of our territory haven’t felt the hand of war for a hundred years or more, even the poor among us know a level of prosperity that would pro-voke envy among the wealthy of 2000 years ago, and our abundance of natural resources and strong government seem likely to safe-guard these things for the foreseea-ble future. Nonetheless, the United States has higher reported rates of depression than any other nation on earth, even those with a medical estab-lishment as well developed as our own. Each year, 3 to 5 percent of American men and 8 to 10 percent of American women will experience a major depressive episode. The number of people this affects is well into the millions; the economic and emotional toll on society is incalcu-lable. Apparently, not only can money not buy happiness, it may even make the situation worse.The causes of and treatments for clinical depression are well beyond the scope of any Bible class, but an acknowledgment of the problem is not. The disorder has a spiritual dimension too, and it may well lead Christian sufferers not only to hide their condition for fear of the judg-ment of others, but also to shrink back, both from their brethren and from their God. We must learn to deal wisely and compassionately with one another in this area, lest we make an already dangerous problem worse. ©Copyright Matthew W. Bassford, 2013. This material is subject to a Crea-tive Commons attribution-noncommercial-no derivative works license. This means that it may be reproduced, shared, and used freely, provided it is attributed to the author, not used for commercial purposes, and not altered in any way. For more information, please see creativecommons.org