Depression

     Many people suffer from depression and for some, it is debilitating.  It can be accompanied by the symptoms of fatigue, feelings of guilt, feelings of hopelessness, loss of pleasure in life, and, in the worst cases, thoughts or acts of suicide.  I know that it is treatable with drugs and therapy, but the drugs come with horrible side effects.  I have been rolling this thought around in my mind; Is there a drugless treatment that can bring permanent improvement or a cure?  Therapists tell me, no.  But I wonder and pray. 

     Many things can be the culprit causing depression: chemical imbalance, age, gender, genetics, trauma, and several other factors. 

     I have developed a very personal relationship with God.  I find myself wanting to improve that relationship daily.  I want my faith to continue its growth.  As my relationship with our Father grows, I more and more experience his healing through prayer and making God an integral part of my daily life.  I am to the point that I am unable to go through the day without a good conversation with him.  He is so gentle and loving.  Where did our Father get this ogre image?  It is totally undeserved.  I become more fully aware of his presence with each and every day.  I lean on him.  I talk to him about my weaknesses, my troubles, my needs and talk with him about how to serve him better.  I wonder if one's faith and a good personal relationship with God could bring a person out of depression?  I should say, I know he will, but the person must first develop faith and that relationship that is so vital.  I say, try it.  Our Father has never refused me that which I need, though it usually comes in a different manner or box than I had envisioned. 

     There is such spiritual joy, love, comfort, and healing  in a personal relationship with God.  Fully lay it in his hands.  Trust him, your Father.  Have faith that it will be done, and it shall.  The relationship builds, solidifies your faith.  Lay it on him...the depression.  He loves us and longs to help and comfort us.  If God cannot do it, then who else can be capable of such a feat?  I look at everything and think, God can do that, change that, heal that...anything is possible with God through Jesus Christ.  With God, you will not be forced to sit through an advertisement of which 80% tells you the ghastly side effects which, in turn, develops a graphic image of unspeakable horrors.   

     Not to be crass, but what have you got to lose?  It is challenging to be positive when you are suffering with depression.  You can do this.  You are not alone.  God above all understands.

     I am by no stretch of the imagination a medical doctor, Nor was Jesus, but he healed.  So many times in the New Testament we read Jesus saying, you have been healed by your faith.  To me, that puts healing within the realm of possibility through God's Holy Spirit within us and, of course, faith.  It is we that have boundaries on the possible, but his son tells us in Matthew 19:26 (NIV)

     Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

     As a Christian, remove the boundaries from God in your faith.  He wants you to put it in his hands.  First, make all things in your life, trials and tribulations included, a glory to God.  Take the example of the young boy crippled from Cerebral Palsy,  The young man praised and thanked God for all his blessings in the midst of a large crowd of harried Christmas shoppers.  By the time he had finished giving all the money he possessed to the Salvation Army Bell Ringer and praising God for all his blessings, he had totally changed the hearts of that large crowd.  Our Father entrusts the heaviest loads to his most faithful.  Carry that load with great joy in your heart for you are one of God's most loved.  He will be with you giving strength, courage, and comfort.  Be a glory to God through your struggles. 

Mark 11:24-26  And Jesus says...

     "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

     In the past, I have heard people say, but God never answers my prayers...ever.  I guess they missed the part about believe or faith that it is received.  So my brothers and sisters, don't forget the faith part of prayer.  Another item people tend to forget is to ask God for forgiveness.  If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right, and praying to our Father is definitely worth doing right. 

     We have taken a journey over the course of this article that I initially thought about not finishing due to its presumptive nature concerning the healing of depression.  But people with this disease need hope and those people need to know where that hope can be found.  My heart truly goes out to those suffering this devastating disease and fully have faith that all is possible with God. I know God will comfort and even heal if that is within his divine and loving will.  I believe an important part of the healing process is persevering through the ordeal with spiritual joy making your perseverance a glory to God.  And we know by the words of Paul in Romans 5:3-5 that perseverance builds character and with that character comes hope.  In my ordeal, when I finally discovered that joy, a calmness and peace came over me.  It was then that I began to realize that God was working through and within me not just to heal me, but comforting and bringing hope to others in their great sufferings by my joy that began to reflect outward.  People would say, how can you be afflicted with such a thing but show little outward suffering?   Spiritual joy through faith.  I set out to give those with depression a tested roadmap to hope.  My prayer is that you are able to follow those directions.  If you get lost, stop and ask any Christian for help.  You never have to do it alone.

    

Diversity In Creation

     God sat resting in his easy chair staring with the critical eye of an artist at the earth he had recently finished creating.  Upon this beautiful blue earth, were snow-capped mountains of various sizes, shapes, coverings.  An immense multitude of flowers, trees, plants, and grasses  of all sizes, shapes, and colors flourished in myriad areas.  Oceans, seas, beaches, flat prairies were placed precisely where they would fulfill his plan.  They appeared static, but to mirror himself, God created the wind to make them ever changing; for without movement or change, there would be no life.  He placed the Sun and stars in the heavens all around to bring light and warmth. Next, came the creatures to crawl, walk, and fly through, across, and over his creation.

     He was pleased, but it lacked something.  As he sat there thinking, the Word came upon him saying, "A habitat with life, but not a creature capable of sharing and enjoying your divine creation.  Not a creature capable of returning your most holy and divine love."

     God began to create Mankind.  The Word asked, "Will you make all of your Mankind one color?  Will you reserve the divine power of creation and pro-creation for yourself?"  God created Mankind in all shapes, sizes, colors, and blessed them with the power to create.  God saw the variety of Mankind; it was good and he loved them.

     He, who is, was, and forever shall be, loves the differences or diversity in his creation.  His Mankind fails to understand or feels threatened by that diversity at times.  If we love God, we must love as God loves, unconditionally.  We cannot pick and choose based upon our personal whims or to help us obtain an advantage over one or another.  We must serve, and must not seek to appear superior.  Only God is superior.  Only God is divine.  Love and celebrate our differences and leave judgment to him, for he knows what is in our hearts and every second of our life.  His judgment is righteous. 

How Different It Would Have Been

     Holy: Merriam Webster Dictionary, exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness.  Psalms 99:9 (NIV)

Exalt the Lord our God

     and worship at his holy mountain,

     for the Lord our God is holy.

     Divine: Merriam Webster Dictionary, of relating to, or proceeding directly from God or a god (there is only one God, delete the last three words from your vocabulary).  John 1:1 (NIV)

     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14 (NIV)

     The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 8:24 (NIV)

     "I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins."

John 8:58 (NIV)

     "Very truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born I am!"

Exodus 3:14 (NIV)

     God said to Moses, I am who I am.  This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I am has sent me to you.'"

John 10:30 (NIV)  Jesus said,

     "I and the Father are one."

Colossians 2:9 (NIV)

     For in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form,..."

     Merry and a holy Christmas in a world where we often fail to realize just how different it would have been without our God giving us the gift of his living among and serving us.

     During this most holy of seasons, let our minds and bodies be a loving and holy reflection of He who is was and forever shall be.

Affected Any Lives Lately?

     The harried throng of people bumped into one another and grumbled under their breaths impatiently to work their way in and out of the department store doors.  Beside the doors was a black gentleman dressed in red and topped with a Santa Claus hat ringing a bell beside the traditional Salvation Army Christmas Pot.  The man was a stark contrast to the frazzled shoppers.  He smiled and sang Christmas songs as the vapors from his mouth in the cold air made him appear to be a steam powered machine.  The people passing usually kept their heads down to fake the act of not noticing his presence to escape the act of giving.  Some even made rude comments like, "You can't go anywhere without these idiots pestering you for money."

     Out of the car-packed parking lot appeared a young boy hobbling on a pair of those steel crutches with the arm rings to support his arms.  His gait was a tortured sight of shaking and wobbling side to side.  The boy's tongue hanging out added to the picture of a great strain of effort on his face as he made his way across the hectic roadway toward the bell ringer.

     The bell ringer noticed the boy's perilous journey and deserted the bell ringing to offer aid while others were irritated with the boy; a nuisance in their path to and from the store. 

     The bell ringer helped the young man complete his crossing, and was about to help him through the busy doorway when the boy began to pull away saying, "No, I waaant to ga...ooo to you pot."  His head teetered back and forth as he turned to look at the bell ringer with a big smile on his face.

     Understanding, the bell ringer smiled allowing the boy to hobble to the pot.  Keeping the big smile transfixed to his face, the boy stared at the bell ringer.  Finally, the bell ringer through his warm heart understood the boy wanted to hear him ring the bell...and ring he did.

     after a minute or two of the bell ringing and both of them smiling at one another, the boy somehow contorted his arm in such a way as to allow him to get his right hand into his coat pocket.  The result of this maneuver was to withdraw a roll of dollars perfectly rolled to fit into the round hole in the lid of the pot.  After the deposit, he demanded, "Ka-keep pa-laying the bell...pa-leese."

     As the bell ringer restarted the much-loved bell ringing, the boy worked his hand back into his pocket and pulled out another perfect roll of dollar bills depositing them through the hole.  He smiled at the bell ringer who reciprocated, and the hands to pocket to hole continued through seven trips.  The boy topped off his wonderful performance with a, "Ah-I want ta ga-ive a da-dollar f-for every ba-blessing I have, ba-but that is a-all I have.  Isn't Jesus' ga-giffft won-er-ful?  Ah-I love ha-im sa-oh ma-uch.  Ha-e's ba-less me sa-oh ma-uch."  Then he waved goodbye and turned slowly and painstakingly to leave.

     Leaving was going to be tougher than the coming for the young man due to the tremendous increase in the crowd.  The entering and exiting at the door had come to a standstill.  All eyes were on the young boy with Cerebral Palsy and that aggravating bell ringer.  Jesus was heavy upon all present.  Their day had done a 180 turn about...all due to a previously annoying bell ringer and a crowd-slowing crippled boy and his simple act of giving all he had.  The crowd's attitude toward giving was in the process of changing all because of one person's simple act of giving to thank God for the many blessings he had bestowed upon him, a person most would think had received the short end of the stick.  Maybe we should examine our lives more closely for blessings before we complain.