Dealing with Difficult Times and Depressing Feelings

In today's first reading, Job 9: 1-12, 14-6, Job is so depressed that he cursed the day that he was born:  "Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, 'It is a boy!' Why did I not perish at birth, come forth from the womb and expire," Job asks God in his despairing moments. Depression is a horrible experience. Many suffer its ravaging emotions, its darkness, not knowing what to do or to whom to turn. Sometimes medication simply does not seem to work. All seems lost!  To get out of bed in the morning, to put one foot ahead of the other, so to speak, to keep on and stay involved in life in spite of one's lethargy is a monumental task.

Many of us, when going through hard times, are encouraged by the psalms. In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 88, we pray:

O Lord, my God, by day I cry out;
at night I clamor in your presence.
Let my prayer come before you; 
incline your ear to my call for help.

For my soul is surfeited with troubles
and my life draws near to the nether world.
I am numbered with those who go down into the pit;
I am a [person] without strength.

My couch is among the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
Whom you remember no longer
and who are cut off from your care.

You have plunged me into the bottom of the pit,
into the dark abyss [of depression].
Upon me your wrath [seems to lie] heavy, 
and with all your billows you overwhelm me.

That is what depression feels like! Both Job and the psalmist teach us to mince no words in our prayer but to tell the Lord how it really is with us when we are troubled, troubled to the point of death!  Let us not pretend that all is well when all is not well!  God wants honesty from us, not because He does not know what we may be suffering but because honesty sets us free. When we can name an emotion, we are in control. When we are unable to name our emotions, they control us! Let us take control by acknowledging before God what we are truly feeling when we are down or hurt, angry or frustrated.  I have found that sharing my feelings with the Lord in writing and then asking for God's counsel works for me. God always comes through with words of Wisdom that lift my spirits, that give me the courage to go on and stay involved in life, giving the best I am capable of giving!

How about you?

God's Ways

In today’s Gospel,  Mark 10: 28-31, Peter wants to know what’s in it for him.  He says to Jesus “We have given up everything and followed you.”  Jesus reminds him that he will get his reward and with it “persecutions.”  None of us wants to be reminded that our journey with the Lord includes going to Calvary with Him, that we will encounter difficulties, that some days will be more challenging than others. We will, at times, be traveling rough roads. At other times roads that are smooth sailing and, even then, may encounter a “storm”.  Jesus also reminds Peter that the first will be last and the last first. Following Jesus is not about accumulating accolades, getting “A’s,”  being applauded for our work.  Am I willing to give up working for the “super-bowl ring,” or the million dollar jackpot? Am I willing to answer Jesus’ call to sacrifice for the sake of the Kingdom, to reach out to “lepers,” the poor, the outcast, to bring sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, to right the wrong of unjust practices without being recognized for my work?  Am I willing to seek out those who are lost, to free others whom I have cast into the darkness of discrimination, prejudice and unforgiveness? Am I willing to free myself from my fallen nature  and let Jesus take me into Himself to be one with God and others, where there are no favorites, where competition does not exist and all are one?