Got Depression... Need Peace?

Have you ever felt the pangs of depression creeping up on you?  I’ve always been kind of an “UP” person and found it fairly easy to push most disparaging thoughts away by simply praising the Lord and getting into His Word.  It’s also helped that I have (finally) been able to memorize familiar scriptures and mentally call them up in times of need.  Piper had the knack to look at a scripture a few times and then commit it to her memory.  But the difference between her and me was that I could never seem to remember the particular place in the Bible where they were located.  But not her!  She’d recall a particular scripture and then add the book, chapter and verse without missing a beat… usually right in the middle of a conversation with someone who needed to hear just that verse!

This last week… for reasons I’ll probably never know or understand, I had a hands-on lesson of dealing with the encroachment of depression.  It was one of those times when everywhere I looked, I saw Piper!  Taking the dog for his daily walks, I saw Piper and I taking the daily walks we enjoyed together during our last year here in Oklahoma before moving home to California, back in 2009.  Driving in the car, out of old habit, I’d find myself reaching across the console to take her hand into mine… I needed to get something out of her top dresser drawer one day and quickly found myself remembering all the wonderful times we had while she was wearing each and everyone of the items of clothes I picked up… I even brought few of them up to my nose to see if I could maybe catch her scent once again.

And the list goes on and on!  I’d look at a picture on the wall and “poof” I was there in my mind’s eye, standing in front of Piper, viewing her perfect pose through the lens of my old Canon EOS 30/Elan7E (which I still have in my personal collection)… and then I’d be off down memory lane remembering all the special two night holidays we took alone together on the California coast… the special things we did with the kids as part of their homeschooling experiences, family camping… sitting on the ball field during lunch in high school, the time we walked in front of the school during another lunch period and got in trouble from the principle himself for holding hands while doing so… and… well, you get it!  It was a more than tough week. 

So, what did I do?  Well… to be honest… I groveled along in deep self-pity for a short period of time… but you know?  That action just didn’t feel right to me and I knew that I had to do something about it.  So… I did what I had heard taught from various Christian speakers, Evangelists, and our Pastors over the years… and had in fact, personally counseled others to do… I thought back to the things that stirred me up, got me excited about life and brought back my sense of expectation in the power of God and His Word.

The first thing I finally did was to remember and verbally confess those favorite encouragement scriptures I mentioned above and then went to my short stack of books that I have here in the house and pulled out two or three of my favorite titles…  Stories of past revivals, accounts of strong men and women of God that I consider to be Generals in the Christian Faith and I began to read.  And it began to work!  The despair that was edging into my heart slowly but surely began to fade away and a renewed sense of hope and expectation gradually took its place in order to lighten the darkness inside. 

But that wasn’t all I did.  When the despair would become noticeable, I would force myself to bundle up (It’s also been pretty cold this last week… and again today…) and take the dog for a walk in the neighborhood.  On a couple of days, I hopped into the car and took a short jaunt to the nearby Neighborhood Walmart to buy myself dinner for the night.  Just getting out and around other people, giving an encouraging greeting, joking with the cashier or passing an encouraging look to the person next to me in the parking lot (who looked like he most definitely didn’t want to talk to ANYONE!) really helped to boost my spirits!  Then there was also spending the last two Sunday nights with my kids and Granddaughter, watching football together (go Niner’s!) … even Fiver had a blast!

Colossians 3:15 tells us to, “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. (KJV)  When studying that verse over the weekend, I quickly re-discovered the power of this scripture truth, especially as I put myself through the steps of kicking out those depressive thoughts!  I’ve heard it said that when you put your natural, faith-filled efforts together with God’s supernatural, that you’ll experience an explosion of God’s power in the situations of your life.  Well… I can definitely say that it happened for me!  Maybe not immediately, but little by little when combined with determination, consistency and a dash of faith on my behalf!

And who knows… if it can work for little old me… I am sure that it will work for you!  Got depressive thoughts floating around in your head… Well… try some of the things that worked for me.  1) Go to God’s Word, 2) Speak out some of your favorite encouraging scriptures, 3) Go back and repeat the things in your past that helped you to get through some rough times, 4) Get out of the house and exercise and 5) Be with those you love and or others in the familiar places you frequent… and then be thankful to God for His Love, His Grace, His Joy and mostly for His Peace!

Have a terrific week… and as you do, say with me… “I am expecting God’s best as I work WITH Him to have a PEACE-FILLED week!”