Thoughts for the Month

JULY

I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Look to him, and be radiant;              (Psalm 34)

There can be very few people who do not, at some time, feel ‘under the weather’, not their usual selves, depressed. Sometimes one knows exactly why one feels like it - there’s a reason - but at others it is an unexplained feeling of great emptiness.

Have you ever experienced this? Are you feeling it now?

There have certainly been times in my life when I have felt totally empty and alone. It is like a dark, bottomless pit, with no toe holds or hand rails to hang on to, and a feeling of being totally ‘not in control.’

Now, I have never had clinical depression, thankfully, but those times have been like black holes and I have wondered why I am here and what is the point of anything?

Now, I don’t know about you, but at such times I don’t want to talk to anyone. I know my husband feels that I shut him out but it isn’t that, it is because I can’t explain what is going on or how I feel. I just want to be left alone.

Is it only me, or do others feel the same?

Now, I know, as you do, that while I may wish to be left alone, I am never totally alone. There is always an all-enveloping love surrounding me and someone watching over me. It is just that sometimes, I find myself in that black hole and it can be easy to forget that even though there are no toe holds or hand rails, all I have to do is put out my hand and it will be gently grasped.

At such times, it can be so easy to forget that we have a book in which we can always find words that can help us.

‘Put your trust in the LORD’                 (Psalm 4 v. 5)

You know, the ‘Book of Psalms’ is a wonderful source of support and ideas that we can turn to in so many situations. I am sure, if one had the time, one could find a relevant passage somewhere in the Psalms that would fit every conceivable problem or issue that we may face in our lives.

Psalm 34 is one such Psalm. When one’s in that ‘black hole,’ it is there to steady one, to lift one up. Try it – read it slowly; stop at certain words and re-read them; let the words swirl around you and cut through that blackness.

Of course, one can read Psalm 34 anytime, indeed, read any part of the Bible at any time. It is helpful though, to keep a list of suitable passages that we can turn to, knowing that they will lift us or sustain us at certain times.

Have you such a list? If not, why don’t you start one?  To know where to turn at various times in our lives without having to search can be so encouraging, consoling, indeed, even life-saving.

If that ‘black pit’ envelops you, remember, there is ‘a light at the end of the tunnel.’

Answer me when I call, O God of my right!     (Psalm 4 v. 1)