Is it Christmas yet!?!?

I LOVE Christmas time.  I love the chill in the air (especially in Florida), I love the time with family, the beautiful lights, the food, the gifts we get and give, the smell of Christmas trees and fires, the time off work, the football, candlelight services, and seeing so many others in good spirits.
On the flip side, I also can tend to get a little depressed around February.  Everything is over, nothing to watch until March Madness, Christmas is over, New Years is over, been back to work for a while, turkey leftovers are gone, I long for the warmth of the sun, Christmas can't come soon enough.  Life goes on.
Circumstances and sin are two things that can often produce depression, anxiety, and fear in our lives.  While my experience with Christmas is not extremely significant, and I, as well as others, have experienced much worse, it does illustrate a couple of things to consider when we are going through (or helping someone go through) depression and anxiety.
The first is the value of how we respond.  There was a time in my life when everything around me seemed broken and unrecognizable, at the same time, there was a tremendous amount of sin in my life.  I went to a licensed therapist, was diagnosed as being clinically depressed, and given medication.  I did feel better, but nothing actually improved.  By the grace of God, some friends intervened in my life and encouraged me to get up and fight.  Through the Holy Spirits power, that is what I did.  I got back to work, back to school, I got up in the morning on time, ate well, and most importantly focused on my relationship with Christ.  I quit worrying about the future, living in the past, and acknowledged that today is where God had me, and in His sovereignty that was enough (Php 4). 
Our response in the midst of it is of the utmost importance.  God has created us in His image and part of that image is to work.  Eph 4 tells us that God has saved us by grace, so that we can work, and that the work has called us to do has been created beforehand (ordained) for us.  What you may find yourself going through is part of the work that God created you for. Amazingly, He does not leave it up to you to accomplish it in your own strength, but it is His strength working in you to accomplish what He has set you out to do (Ps. 37:39).  You can get up because He not only calls you to, but enables you to. 
Secondly, is the importance of our perspective.  The Elect are promised by Christ to suffer.  Life and our work is going to be hard, and depression and anxiety and fear may come.  One of the most powerful and deceptive aspects of depression and anxiety is the all encompassing universality that can be felt in the midst of it.  It is not abnormal to experience despair, many great men and women of faith have found themselves in "the dark night of the soul."  This is why our response is so important, and that as part of our response we cry out to God that we may feel the anchor of our soul that reaches in behind the veil to our hope...Christ (Heb 6:19).  While I like my Christmas illustration, there is a better and more powerful truth offered to us in Scripture.  While we are redeemed by Christ, and created to walk in the ordained works God has given to us, an eternal day of rest is coming.  That is what I am truly longing for when Christmas has come and gone, that is what Sundays point us to as we worship and fellowship and eat fried chicken, that is what will get you out of bed and back to work, when the world comes crashing down. 
We are going through "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan in Sunday school.  The first chapter addresses the intimacy and awesomeness of God that we can experience specifically through prayer, when we consider the Almighty God we are about to approach.  We were asked to give testimonies of times we have experienced this in our prayer life.  Almost unanimously, the testimony involved prayer during an intense time of suffering, anxiety, and depression.  Just like David in Psalm 73, when we take our perspective off of our circumstances and turn to meditate on our Almighty God, our troubles are overwhelmed and we too can declare "When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.  Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand.  With Your counsel you will guide me, and afterward receive me to glory.  Whom have I in heaven but You?  And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."