Walking on Water by Tommy Nelson and Steve Leavitt
Depression and anxiety wreak havoc in the lives of those sitting
in the pews and those who have never graced a church with their presence. The real benefit of this book is the lack of
Christian sentimental mush that so often accompanies books on depression, but
rather, instead, this book offers a common sense look at the effects of very
real people struggling with these things.
As many people know, Tommy Nelson is a nationally and internationally
known pastor who preaches and teaches on a regular basis for Denton Bible Church
and also puts together the ever popular Song of Solomon teaching series. The other author, Steve Leavitt is a
Christian counselor who recognizes the power of anxiety and depression in his
own life and in the lives of those whom he counsels.
In the first chapter of the book, Tommy Nelson tells his
story of being hit with the startling truth that he was going through severe
anxiety and panic attacks. Tommy begins
by saying, “Upon reflection, I can see I’d had signs of its approach for two
years…..I began to notice that in the spring and fall my body would ache….Next
we drove to a Chinese restaurant, and there I felt what I now know was the
onset of an anxiety attack or panic attack” (10-11). Earlier on Tommy states he felt before his
onset that ‘Christians usually do not talk about depression, because believers…not
supposed to experience it” (10). A moral
failing depression is not, but we get the sense that there is a common unspoken
notion of this in the church. Each time
a blow of anxiety or a blow to the body would happen, Tommy would be quite
confused because the doctors examination would come up with flying colors
except for blood pressure and heart rate.
As Steve Leavitt recounts the sudden death of his wife, the same mental
trauma develops in his own life.
One of the best sections of the book is the part where Steve
addresses how the Bible speaks about depression. He writes, “Cain’s despair was brought on by
his own doing, which can happen with us too, but sometimes God allows suffering
for His own purposes and our good.
Either way, God knows that we suffer and hurt and even despair, so He
addresses it. We have to be willing to
allow Scripture to help us understand our situation as well as to comfort us in
it” (30). The relief that I found in
reading this part was Steve’s reminder that God addresses even our despair, our
bleak moments of depression where we feel all hope is lost. This causes me to realize that God is the
great intervener, the great initiator of relationships. Secondly, this reminder that God is willing
to address our despair is a signal to us to see the cross as both triumphing
over despair and seeing Jesus as a willing Son enduring the greatest despair of
pain and death for our sake.
I found Steve’s section on taking preventive measures to be
very helpful. He says at one point in
order to deal with anticipatory anxiety to take account of things in your life
through two lists; things you can change and things you cannot change. Making a list of all your stressors and
categorizing them allows you to not fall into the hands of over
anxiousness. Why is this helpful? Because in removing the obstacles to anxiety,
we remove the tendency to set us ourselves up for immediate failure and despair
(147-148). One interesting point in this
chapter is Steve’s assertion that often those who thing they have depression
actually have anxiety due to feelings of hopelessness.
You get the impression that this book seeks to dismantle the
idea that Christians don’t struggle with depression and provides a most helpful
way of dealing with both anxiety and depression. Al though I don’t think this book answers
every question about these matters, I think it provides us a great resource for
moving ahead and dealing in faith with the hopelessness that comes from
anxiety.
Much thanks to Tyndale Publishers for the review copy of
this book in exchange for review.
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