Have you had the experience of waking up in a melancholy mood, with no apparent reason why?
All this week rain is predicted in the forecast, so we are experiencing some overcast cloudy days. We are on the cusp of Summer, with the heat and humidity that accompanies the season. With those two things at the forefront of my experience, I woke up with a melancholy spirit. I wasn’t sure what the cause was, or if there was one.
In the cycles of our lives, there are always going to be up days, and down days. Days when everything seems to be just right, and days when nothing appears so. What do we do with those days? Sometimes the feelings are strong and pervasive, do we just burrow under the covers and wait for a change to come?
That’s probably not the right answer for us. We all have tasks and duties to perform, no matter how we’re feeling. We have to find ways to compensate for the doldrums.
When we look in the Bible, we find very little evidence of people sweeping their feelings under the rug. They deal with them, and God is present to walk with them in those times. In Psalm 34:18 we read…”The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” King David knew and experienced just the kinds of times I’m talking about. He had a lot of pressure on him. He had family issues, and governance issues, and military issues. He didn’t necessarily have the time to lay down and wallow in his feelings of depression or sadness.
Heaviness in our souls is a common occurrence, and acknowledging it helps us to move toward God who will lift up our spirits. Psalm 42:5 does exactly this when it says…”Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Do we see? The first part acknowledges there is within the soul a melancholy spirit. The second part doesn’t allow us to wallow there, but rather claims the understanding that praises will continue to flow to God for all God’s goodness in our lives.
Oftentimes it seems to me, we have this unspoken expectation that our lives are supposed to be filled with happiness and rainbows. That’s never what we are promised. We are promised that through every season, every mood swing, every downturn in our spirit, God is right beside us. The God who made us is well aware of the highs and lows we face.
Maybe, we need those times of melancholy to remind us of just how powerful it is to have God beside us. When everything is going right, when the sun is shining and music is in the air, we forget how much we truly need God. Its when the down times come, we become acutely aware of how much we need God’s presence.
I have had a number of dogs in my life as companions, mostly chihuahuas. I loved each of them dearly and enjoyed their company. When I would come home from work, they were waiting for me at the door; happy, excited, tail wagging, barking. You might think it was because they were trying to tell me they needed to go outside. I know, however, they missed me terribly. I can’t even imagine how their day was all alone. They brightened up immensely when they saw I was there.
Maybe the melancholy you and I experience is part and parcel of the same kind of feeling. We somehow have not felt God’s presence, and so our spirit is deflated. When we acknowledge our need for God, and then connect to God who has been with us all along, we too are overjoyed. We don’t have tails to wag, but we do have joyousness in our soul that seems to overflow.
May the God who loves us beyond any measure, the God who stands with us, walks with us, and carries us, may God continue to be present in our good and bad days. May God give us the hope and belief in what the Psalmist says in Psalm 30:5…”Weeping may tarry for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
Your companion on the Way,
Pastor Tom