Can a good Christian hedonist struggle with seasons of depression?

A listener to the podcast, Hannah, writes us from her home in Los Angeles with that question.

Hello, Pastor John.

I read your book Desiring God Years ago, and it completely wrecked me in a great way.

I couldn't believe that God wanted me to enjoy him.

It has been such a blessing to learn from you how to experience the love and pleasure

of God, but my question comes from a place of fear.

I have a tendency to be depressed and have spent at times months and once years in darkness.

I learned how to move through it for shaking lies and seeking the promises and truth of

God in order to be free of them.

However, there is a very real place of deep darkness that I have experienced.

When I hear you speak of Christian hedonism and joy and pleasure in God, I feel a

tinge of fear because I have often lived in valleys where I feel little joy.

Can flourishing Christian hedonism coexist with seasons of dark depression or is that

a stark contradiction of terms?

Maybe it's a sweet providence that we are recording this just days after John Bloom, who works

at Desiring God, published at the website Desiring God an essay called My Soul Refuses

to Be Comforted, a song for long nights in darkness.

It's a meditation on Psalm 77.

I don't think there are many guides for people like Hannah, then John Bloom, not many better

guides.

So Hannah, you can go back into the archives at Desiring God and search on John Bloom, My

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