Just Look Up? What?

It happened again...I recently heard said from the pulpit, from a pastor speaking to a crowd of people that depression happens when we look too long at ourselves, that somehow depression means that we are selfish and not thinking about others enough.Somehow, focusing inward on ourselves, we are depressed. If we would just look up, we could stop being depressed. That is actually a lie from the pit of hell that will never help a person struggling with depression to "get better". God has taught me the best lessons of growth in the darkness.

I have heard quite a few messages lately where like the television sitcoms that have become more and more obsolete, we can wrap up solutions to my "Christian life problems" in an entertaining and engaging little 30-40 minute talk. It doesn't work that way. Sometimes life gets worked out day by day, hour by hour, or moment by moment. We receive our daily bread and if this day is not very bright, He has given me what I need for the sunshine and the rain. I am His but yet, where I am is not my home.

If my depression is because I am not looking at Him enough, why is He there with me in that very blue, darkish gray, or black place? My God is with me there just the same as He is in the brightest of sunshine. I actually see Him brighter in the dark. In fact, by His Spirit, He has taught me (in the last 30+ years that I have lived with depression) that it is okay to be there for today. I don't have to "try" to work my way into the sunshine. Some days just are not sunny.

I love my God and that He gave us all David's words in the psalms to read and digest. He must have looked at himself a lot in the mirror based on some of those words. He was depressed, but ALSO focused on God. (Click here if you want to read more about that) He knew where his help came from. He had questions and experienced every emotion and turned out to be a "man after God's own heart". You don't get that title by looking at yourself too long in the mirror, by loving yourself too much. But yet, some of his best writing is where I go when I need the reminder that God is with me here whatever shade this day may be.