of people and has opened important discussions about depression and mental health.
If I'm reading this correctly (and I hope so), his tragic battle and ultimate defeat
have inspired what feels like the early stages of a movement towards a deeper understanding of depression.
Robin Williams' story began to haunt me the morning after his death, when I saw a brief interview with a Hollywood reporter who had spoken with him many times. She said several things that stuck with me:
First, he never left without first getting you to laugh. (Surely the pleasure he could give to someone else also rebounded on him like a potent restorative.) Secondly, when you were with him, you felt hugged. Thirdly -- this particularly grabbed my attention -- he spoke of his long-time depression as though it were a living presence. "Almost like a ghost," the reporter added. Whenever he would begin to feel better, "it" would find him and taunt him, demoralizing him into believing he was worthless.
"It" was not a ghost. He has a name. He's the father of lies. He walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. On Monday, he finally succeeded in devouring a shattered man he had tormented unrelentingly for decades.
I'm writing this as a tribute to a lost man. In his most inspired moments, Robin Williams had the ability to lift people outside themselves, to cause them to view the world for a moment through his own outlandish childlike wonder.
I'm writing this, too, to remind us to keep the lion's weary prey on our radar. You may know some of them -- they are everywhere. You may be one of them.
The lion has been defeated, by another Lion who far, far outranks him. But the defeated one's time of devouring is not yet over. Please remember this with compassion. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the one whose
intent is to deceive, debilitate, and destroy.
Goodbye, Robin. How I wish a thousand surrendered saints had prayed for you every single day; how I wish I had been one of them.
Thank you for your bittersweet gift, and for the wake-up call.
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"Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome..." Revelation 5:5 |
This is our message.