Good morning from the Scraptuary @>--%-----
Welcome to another Thankful Thursday.
If you have a cup of tea handy or some good ole joe, bring it on over and sit a spell. Today my heart,my mind, and my spirit are overflowing with thankfulness. The subject that I am thankful for on this day may surprise you... depression. Yes you read right, I said depression and here is why...
In my mind at this current time in order to be thankful, you need to experience something hurtful. Those who know me are aware that I have and continue to struggle with health issues. Now I realize that health is something we can take care of on our own to an extent. And it's also something we can take for granted and let go to the wayside just as quickly.
A very dear Divine Sister in Christ noticed that I kept repeating patterns and was stuck in a rut. The kind of rut that no matter how hard you try it just got deeper and deeper...yep you guessed it the rut of depression. It overtakes even the simplest task, or thoughts and turns them into an irrationality of not being worth accomplishing. The thought life of a depressed forty year old female is something that I would not wish on even the most disliked person on earth. To give a visual, remember in the Charlie Brown cartoons when the characters would get angry, that black scribbly cloud would appear above there heads, that's my thought life. Everything looping in and out of each other and no clarity what so ever, just one big jumbled mess with no pause, constantly running.
To help me with this mess, the first thing I am thankful for is God's written word.
In 2 Corinthians 10:5 it reads
5 We demolish arguments
and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,
and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. NIV.
5 We destroy every proud
obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious
thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. NLT
3-6The world is
unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn't fight fair.
But we don't live or fight our battles that way—never have and never
will. The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but
they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use
our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down
barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought
and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our
tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction
and building lives of obedience into maturity. MSG
Depression itself is full of arguments and pretension against our Father's knowledge. It has convinced me many times to miss church and fellowship, to avoid phone calls from very dear friends that are just simply making sure I'm still breathing. Depression takes the place of living the life God has intended for me to have. One of the sight effects of the big D is anxiety that can rear it's ugly head in many different forms. For me I get very impatient and snappy, (even as I write this the font keeps changing and I get frustrated...UGH!!)
But chew on this, who gave us our health in the first place? Where did it originate? Remember that DSC I mentioned earlier, she blessed me with a book that is bringing me some much needed clarity in all this mess. The title is Calm My Anxious Heart , A Woman's Guide to Contentment by Linda Dillow. When racing thoughts keep me from settling into bed at night, I have started reading this book til my eyes cannot read no more and finally shut. I would like to share with you by paraphasing an excerpt from
Chapter 3~ Content to be Me pages 43-44...God Created Your Body...
In Psalm 139 God created not just our personality but gave us our bodies. Verse 15 in the NASB reads "My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth" The Hebrew translation of wrought means "embroidered". It is the same Hebrew word that is used to refer to the skillful and artistic needlework in the curtains of the OT tabernacle. When God fashioned me in my mother's womb, He wove each chosen thread intricately to create a beautiful one of a kind pattern, and knit together every vein, muscle, nerve, every curve, and indentation that is uniquely me. What tapestry can begin to equal the human fabric?
Amazing image...our Father sitting in the most beautiful place, picking out each piece of "thread", putting it thru the eye of the needle of "life", wrapping each hook carefully and precisely, and embroidering every detail of us...I am learning to be thankful for depression, for it's ironic reflection is content, that no matter what my emotions may be today or in the days to come, I was woven together by the One who loves me most. However the depressive thread trys to unravel God's pattern for my life, I am thankful that He won't let it, and that He is my strength, hope, and future.
-----%<@ Until We Visit Again, Thanks for Droppin' In@>---%-----
Awesome post!!! This made me think about a few things. I think too many of us (myself included) get wrapped up in how or what we can change about our selves to "improve" ourselves or our situations. This, in itself, is not a bad thing, however, I tend to get into the mindset of "I suck until I reach x point, then I won't suck anymore." It's true, we all need to make changes and strive to be better people, however, we also need to take time to appreciate where we are in the moment, do what we can to take care of our issues, but not beat ourselves up because we have not "arrived"
ReplyDeleteGreat post!