Just asking....

When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse everything I know of you...(Psalm 42:8)

Do you ever end up in the mulligrubs? Oh, you don't know what mulligrubs are - let me tell you a little about that place. It is a place of despondency, sullenness, or even an ill-tempered mood. Now, answer my question honestly - do you ever end up in the mulligrubs? As hard as you tried not to end up there, your day started wrong, went on being wrong, and ended even more wrong than it started! The outcome - mulligrubs. Grumpiness is another term we may hear used for this old-fashioned word. If we were to say this of a baby, we'd say they have the 'colic'. Misery and woe - pain they cannot explain - pain no one else seems to know how to fix. The 'toned down' meaning of this term is kind of feeling 'blah', or being in a 'funk'. Truth be told, we all 'get there' from time to time, but probably have learned to mask it a little better than someone else!

In the dumps? Begin to rehearse the things you know about your Lord and see how long you can remain with feet firmly planted in those mulligrubs! When we rehearse what we know about God, we are really beginning to hone in on what we have come to know, rely upon, and stand firm in when other times have been tough or gotten us out of sorts. Have you ever started counting something, lost count, and had to go back again to 'recount' the things you were counting? When the mulligrubs hit me, I begin to 'recount' the blessings of God - the latest actions he has taken in my life, the last lesson he was teaching me - not the oldest ones, but the most recent. Why? Those are the freshest in my memory and they can actually begin to trigger the memory of those a little further back. It is like a snowball - there is a core all the other snow attaches to and as the ball begins to roll, it gets bigger and bigger until you are ready to see something built from that 'big ball'.

God's graces are kind of like a snowball - they build up what is at the core of our being and begin to roll-up into bigger 'grace balls' until something is ready to be built with the 'bigger ball' of grace we now have. By 'recounting' your blessings, you didn't make the snow that went into that ball - you just allowed it to build the layers until what you see before you is bigger than the misery and woe that was once foremost in your view. It changes our perspective and isn't that what is needed most when we are in the mulligrubs? We need a change in perspective that begins with a change in mindset - we begin to focus less on what isn't going right and begin to focus on what we know about God. It is hard to remain despondent in the presence of God, isn't it? Just askin!

You riding a bicycle or tricycle?

Ruined lives surround us no matter where we live.  People start out well, but somehow through a series of misadventures and wrong turns, their lives end up in a state of shambles, almost like falling down shacks.  Along the way, they may have heard advice to not take a certain path, or to turn away from what they were pursuing with such earnest.  In ignoring the warnings, they compounded their misfortune and increased their speed of decline.  Now, at the bottom of the pit, they live with nothing more than regrets and the constant wondering of the "what if".  The worrisome part of their decline into the pit is the possibility of them having blamed God for the decline - for putting them in the pit.  In reality, it was their failure to heed warnings, to turn away from their self-directed pursuits.  Why is it we blame God when things end in ruins?  He isn't a God of "ruin", but of "hope", "possibilities", and even "impossibilities".  

People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed?  (Proverbs 19:3 MSG)

Scripture is quite plain, no matter which interpretation or version you consult - people ruin their lives by their own decisions, actions, and self-directed paths. On the other hand, people do not really "improve" their lives - at best, we can do a little self-help regimen which might create a different set of circumstances for ourselves for a while, but true life change only is accomplished by the indwelling of God's Spirit in our lives.  Try as we might, we cannot change ourselves.  Scripture calls following our own path "foolishness" or "folly".  It ends in disaster, defeat, and decline - in other words, the bottom of the pit!  What seems good at the moment results in a "pay-out" much worse than we counted on.

Self-directed lives have a natural "flaw" - they are directed by emotion and reason (two quite unreliable sources of direction for our lives).  Yesterday, we spoke about the importance of man's three parts - body, soul, and spirit.  As we explored those three aspects of our being, we discovered man needs the spirit to bring balance to the things "sensed" in the body and "experienced" in the emotions, rational intelligence, etc.  Relying upon one or the other exclusively (body or soul) is definitely leaving us at risk.  If man relies upon how he interprets life simply by what he "senses" with his body - sight, smell, touch, hearing, etc. - he will lack the help of the intellect and emotion to "interpret" what he is sensing.  On the other hand, if he relies solely upon emotions to give him insight into right choices, he may miss the importance of how emotions are affected by our senses.  Body and soul walk side-by-side - but they still need a "third wheel" to give them balance much in the same way we need a third wheel on a tricycle!

A bicycle is like relying upon the body and soul - we can go places, but we may lack the stability of balance.  Adding the third wheel to the bicycle makes it a tricycle. If you learned to ride one of these, you know you didn't have to work hard to keep yourself upright - the third wheel assisted us in balancing without much effort on our part.  In the same manner, the spirit is the place of balance in our lives - the place of connection with God.  I realize this is an over-simplified illustration, but when we begin to recognize how the Spirit of God influences our spirit and brings us to a place of "reliable balance" in our decisions, we become less reliant upon our own abilities to remain upright and moving forward (like we have to when riding a two-wheel bicycle).  The "third wheel" is not added to the back, but to the front.  Think of the body and soul as being those two back wheels on the tricycle - the spirit is the front wheel. As the wheel out front, when it is connected with God's Spirit, it is free to help direct our path, steering us around obstacles, and keeping us from ending up in the pit!

We may not always make the best decisions in life, but it is good to know that we have been given every resource to change those decisions and to see new outcomes.  As we connect with God's Spirit, our spirit is energized, made alive, and we can begin to see the influence of his "balance" in our daily decisions.  We may curse the place where our body and soul allowed us to end up, but we cannot accept that God put us there.  No pit is so deep he cannot rescue us from it - no despair so dark he cannot bring light into those dark spaces.  How?  Connection with his Spirit in our spirit.  Just sayin!

Crying the blues, are ya?

The blues - ya singing 'em?  We all have a time here and there when we just get into the "mulligrubs" - the place where we are kind of ill-tempered, grumpy, or just plain grouchy.  Our circumstances have been internalized and we are allowing them to affect the attitude we display about everything we touch in life.  Melancholy is not meant to be a way of life for a believer, but we sometimes find this path kind of worn smooth by our frequent passage over it, huh?  Sometimes our "souls" just need a good talking to - they need to hear clearly they are not where they need to be!  There is a song I remember from grade school - about the old gray mare not being what she used to be.  Now, if we were given to singing the blues now and again, we might just bemoan the fact the "old mare" or "old stallion" isn't what s/he used to be!  Physically we age and the aging process is sometimes less than kind to us!  On the other hand, I think we sometimes stay mentally, spiritually, and emotionally immature - never giving ourselves the chance to experience the growth God intends for us.  Instead, we choose to bemoan the fact our growth never seems to come.  We get downright melancholy in the process.  As I have said before - nothing good comes to those who just bemoan their losses, or dwell on their past.  We have to be outward focused if we are to overcome the mulligrubs.

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.  (Psalm 42:11 NIV)

Discouragement can be a deterrent, can it not?  It gets into our bones and even slows us down.  Our shoulders begin to slump, our muscles seem heavy, and even our breathing seems to be labored.  If discouragement affects us too deeply, we will just stall out - or crash land!  The truth is - none of us can live ABOVE discouragement at all times.  It is a natural part of dealing with life's stressors, the emotional roller-coasters we ride, and the affects of all kinds of forces we don't see, but certainly feel.  What is worse - not all problems we face are "fixable" by us!  We might want to get them fixed, but guess what - we don't possess the ability, or perhaps they are not our problems to fix in the first place.  If you have ever tried to fix a problem you don't own, you know the extreme frustration that causes you - usually because you are also trying to fix someone else in the process!  If you don't possess the ability to fix the problem, you might be a little reticent to ask for assistance to get it done - simply because pride, fear, or mistrust gets in the way.

So, we live with our discouragement as well as we can, not because we want to, but because we don't know the way out!  Sometimes the answers to what is giving us problems is not always going to be readily known.  We often need to ask for advice - to get instruction.  Here's the rub - we don't always know how to ask for help, nor do we believe anyone else will be able to help us.  In short, we deal with discouragement because our pride gets in the way of us asking God to help us out of the pit, or to take the hand of the one God has provided to actually give us a means of climbing out of the pit with their help. God wants us to "partner" with him and often someone else he puts in our path in order to rise above the discouragement.  He doesn't plan for us to dwell in the rut!

God gives us a certain amount of mental abilities - the ability to reason, make choices, run equations, etc.  This mental ability often is what we turn to when we are facing discouraging times - we attempt to "calculate" our way out.  I like watching some of the survival shows on occasion - not because I would want to do them, but because I see how their minds work in order to "calculate" their best opportunities for making it through what they are exposed to in the midst of harsh and punishing conditions.  The mind is made to "calculate the odds" and "run the scenarios" - it functions much like a computer.  The problem comes when we just "run the scenarios" and forget to enter God into the equation!  Discouraging times often get us to the point of only seeing the walls of the rut - forgetting to look up to the light just above those walls!

If you take only one thing away from today's study, here it is:  God wants us to be changed right where we are.  Discouragement would get us to focus on what we could have been, or what we should have done.  God wants us to focus on what he can do in the midst of where we are right now.  Why? Truthfully, it is because where we are is the only place we can grow!  A seed cannot grow where it is not planted - it grows exactly where it is planted!  If we are in the rut, then the opportunity for our growth comes IN the rut, not because we somehow find a way out of it.  You don't overcome discouragement by some mystical power from within - you allow the place you are planted to become a stepping stone for your growth - because you allow it to be attended to by the best one for the job - God himself.

Discouragement takes our focus off of God and gets it on ourselves.  It has us turned inward.  The things we see when we only gaze inward lead us to even deeper despair, for we don't possess what we need in order to get beyond the walls of self-pity, pride, or fear.  In looking upward (outward), we see not only the walls, but we begin to see the path which lead us into the rut.  We don't retrace the path "in" to find the way "out".  We look for God to provide a new path!  It is usually in front of us, not behind.  It is above us, not below.  We look for the messiness of life to change around us - God looks for it to change within us.  It is this change which begins to release us from the pit of discouragement we have come to call home!  Just sayin!

Crossing deserts?

I like salty treats - even to the point of craving them sometimes.  Whenever I consume them though, I usually end up drinking a lot of water - because they make me thirsty.  In the end, they leave me thirsty for a long time, not just while I am taking them in.  My body simply cannot process all the sodium in the salty treats without a whole lot of water.  In fact, whenever we find ourselves in the midst of the "excesses" of life, we often crave what we most need to help us deal with the excess.


God—you're my God! I can't get enough of you! I've worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts. (Psalm 63:1 The Message)


So, we crave what we most need to deal with what we find ourselves enduring!  Sometimes we are "enduring" stuff by our own doing - like when I eat a huge bowl of Cheezits or eat a whole candy bar.  The sodium from one and the sugar from the other just cause me to "crave" the very thing which will help my body deal with the excess of sodium or sugar.  Now, let's take a look at some of the things we find which develop a more "spiritual" craving.


Our psalmist gives us an example of traveling across dry and weary deserts as a source of both hunger and thirst.  We all have them - deserts.  We may live in the greenest parts of the world, but we endure deserts!  Let's just look at a couple of deserts, shall we?


- The desert of loneliness.  We may find ourselves suddenly without familiar acquaintances.  Perhaps it is the result of a move to a new locale, the loss of a spouse, or the lack of solid friends we can pour our hearts out to.  Regardless of the cause, we find ourselves enduring a sense of loneliness.  At the core of loneliness is the idea of being without a companion in the journey.  This desert is then a place of isolation - whether you wanted it or not.  In the place of isolation, we often find ourselves without the people or things we have found ourselves relying on in the past.  Now, as we examine the purpose of this desert, we might find it hard to imagine a "good" purpose!  Being isolated is definitely NOT God's plan for us humans - he made us specifically to "relate" to others, not to be alone.  So, what "good" comes out of this desert?  


Well, I can only share some of the things which have come out of my times of being on a journey in this desert.  First, I have learned I actually NEED other people.  There is nothing more revealing about our "dependence" on the feedback of others, the sense of hope rendered in a simple touch, etc., than to be suddenly alone.  We need connection.  In fact, believe it or not, we crave it!  Second, I believe God may actually allow some of us to walk this desert to draw us closer to those he has given in our lives.  You know the saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"?  I think it is realized the most in the desert of loneliness!  God's lessons to you may be a little different, but if you will allow him to speak to you in your desert, he will reveal the lessons!


- The desert of despair.  This is a most difficult desert to face.  It is one in which we have lost hope - we are without any sense of things ever getting better.  In this desert, we often find ourselves out so far on the limb, the weight of our burden so great, hearing the cracking of the limb as it strains to keep us upright.  We are "stuck" - we cannot go further out on the limb or turn back.  This is indeed a most difficult desert to cross.  Yet, the most hopeless place is often the place our faith begins to take flight!  


In the desert of despair, we begin to look for solutions we often ignore when things are smooth sailing.  Things like intimate prayer with our Maker - pouring out our hearts to him with eager desperation.  In the moment of despair, don't we often find ourselves looking back to God?  Did you catch that?  We are looking "back" to God!  It is an amazing thing, but despair often drives us back to God - maybe even without ever recognizing just how comfortable we had become without him!


- The desert of brokenness.  The very thing we need in this desert is the very thing we have absolutely no ability to accomplish on our own.  It is only by the restorative and regenerating touch of our God we cross this desert.  We may be "broken" by a whole lot of things - bad relationships, words which have left us scarred, or just a series of bad choices which resulted in us being "undone" by life.  


In the desert of brokenness, we need "repair", don't we?  What we drink the most freely of in this desert is God's grace.  It is indeed a refreshing and restorative "drink".  


Regardless of the desert, look again at our passage.  The purpose of the desert is to cause us to hunger and thirst.  Hunger for the best, thirst for what will refresh truly.  We may have a lot of desert-crossing in our days.  Just remember this:  No desert is without hunger or thirst of some kind.  What we do with the hunger or thirst determines the outcome of the desert-crossing!

This "PIT" will not consume me!

Ever hit bottom and find yourself recognizing the depth of the pit all while life continues to demand more and more of you?  I think all of us have experienced being overwhelmed in some "pit" at one time or another.  The impact of the "pit" is determined by the perception we maintain IN the pit.  We can continue to look down - seeing only the darkness of the lowest point.  We can look outward - seeing only the closeness of the walls surrounding us, seemingly holding us in a position of bondage.  Or...we can look up, taking notice of the glimmer of light breaking in the distance, and take hope!

 ⁵ Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?  Why are you crying the blues? 

   Fix my eyes on God—soon I'll be praising again.  He puts a smile on my face.  He's my God.

(Psalm 43:5 The Message)

David penned these words a long time ago, but they have awesome value for us today.  In the midst of the pit, he questions himself.  The searching questions he poses reveal much.  First, he asks his "soul" (mind, will and emotions) why it is down in the dumps.  There are times when we need to examine our thoughts in the "pit" of despair - simply because all action begins with thoughts.  Our mind is key to our perspective.  

If we recount only the darkness of the bottom of the pit, or the closeness of the encompassing walls, we see no way out!  The will plays a part in determining how we perceive the "pit" - without determination, we never change our focus.  The emotions just serve to overwhelm us when our mind and will have chosen to focus on the depth of the pit and the limits of its walls.

Second, he asks himself why he is "crying the blues".  Simply put, this is the tendency we all have to "rehearse" the darkness of the pit over-and-over again. We ruminate - chew the cud, so to speak.  In doing so, we tell ourselves the story again and again until the story become the "reality" by which we make all our decisions.  In the end, we wonder why the walls are closing in and the floor seems to be getting darker!

As quickly as he asks himself these questions, he seems to recognize the futility of the position he is allowing himself to remain in.  Yep, you caught it when I said he "allowed" himself to remain in the pit.  The pit is indeed a choice.  We determine our response to the pit - the pit has no influence over us until we give it the influence!  He turns as quickly from the futility of his "pit-dwelling" emotional upheaval and begins to speak to his soul.

Did you ever consider the meaning of "pitiful"?  I think it is a word which describes being so consumed by the "pit" that we cannot be filled up with anything other than the pit!  David begins to turn his focus upward - seeing the "light" from the opening of the pit.  He "fixes" his eyes on the light - and in time, his heart is lifted in hopeful praise.  He sees the way out - determines to focus on the opening rather than the closeness of the despair which had become his object of focus for a while!

I am not a "pit-dweller".  When I stumble into the pits of life, I soon begin to recognize the absolute hopelessness of staying there too long.  In fact, I have come to recognize the way out is often the opposite of the way I got into the pit!  No one gets into the pit from the bottom first!  We all get there.  The choice to remain, or escape, is made in the moment we determine our focus!

On Empty

I call out at the top of my lungs, "God! Answer! I'll do whatever you say." 
   I called to you, "Save me so I can carry out all your instructions." 
   I was up before sunrise, crying for help, hoping for a word from you. 
   I stayed awake all night, prayerfully pondering your promise. 
   In your love, listen to me; in your justice, God, keep me alive. 

(Psalm 119:145-149 The Message)

Desperation is condition in which hope has faded - - there is a sense of hopelessness, a sense of just wanting to give up.  These are the times when we are often heard just crying out to God, "Hey, are you listening here???"  It is our "God! Answer!"  There are times I think God has allowed me to get to the place of "God! Answer! I am pretty desperate here!"  Yep, you read that right - - he allowed it!  He put me in a place where I came smack-dab face-to-face with the inability of my own talent, inadequacy of my own strength, or insufficiency of my own resources in order that he might become my all-in-all.

Up before sunrise, awake into the wee hours of the night, crying for God to listen to our plight.  A "plight" is often viewed as anything we interpret as an "unfavorable" state.  It could be a relationship that has tanked, financial situation revealing a negative balance more frequently than a positive, or some emotional struggle within which we find ourselves more often than not.

Did you realize that there is a secondary meaning to "plight"?  It is an old world term used to describe the pledging of oneself with the intention of the pledge being as binding as a contract.  When we are calling out to God with our "God! Answer!" cries, we are often referring to the "bond" we have with him without even knowing it!  We are relying on the "contract"!  Not a literal piece of paper that binds two parties, but the bond that exists because God first loved us, sought us out as his own, and then entered into a relationship of "permanence" with us.

The relationship may become a little "devoid" of all the "spark" once in a while, but nonetheless, his commitment to us is as permanent as his Word.  Nothing can sever us from his constant care.  If a "void" exists, it is our doing, not his.  Empty spaces create a sense of emptiness - - emptiness is the basis of a lack of hope (desperation).  Whenever we create a "culture" within our relationships which allows for "empty spaces", we are open to the feelings of hopelessness that follow.

God's desire for us in our relationship with him is a lack of empty spaces!  He wants to fill us to overflowing - - leaving no space for any sense of doubt, frustration, worry, or fear to enter in.  His desire for us in our "human" relationships is this same lack of empty spaces!  We need to be attentive to those things we allow to create emptiness within our lives.  It takes only one moved pebble in a rainstorm to begin to cut the course for a raging river!

If you find yourself feeling a little "empty" today - - it is likely you are sensing it in the one relationship which will sustain you the most - - the one you have with Jesus.  In your emptiness, don't cry out for deliverance!  Cry out for filling.  It is in the filling of the empty spaces that our despair will be dealt its  final blow!

Misery, Despair, and Depression, Oh My!

 I'm feeling terrible—I couldn't feel worse!  Get me on my feet again. You promised, remember?  When I told my story, you responded; train me well in your deep wisdom.  Help me understand these things inside and out 
      so I can ponder your miracle-wonders. 

(Psalm 119:25-27 The Message)

I was watching a game show the other night with mom.  The introductions of the contestants included the regular demographics - where do you live, where do you work, what are your hobbies?  I have to say that I cringe each and every time I hear someone say, "I am an author.  I write self-help books."  I am so amazed that anyone could actually figure out how to help "self"!  In my own experience, I have observed that my "self" is pretty doggone unreliable and no amount of me helping "me" really "sticks"!!!

David opens this section with the cold, hard truth that he is miserable!  Have you ever been this honest with God?  Really just getting down to the nitty-gritty with him - telling him like it is - is probably one of the hardest things for some of us. We try to paint a rosy picture many times, instead of being as forthright as David finds himself being in this passage.  David lays it all out there - "I'm feeling terrible!  I couldn't feel worse!"  Let me tell you, David struggled with some pretty severe depression from what I can see recorded throughout this writings!  

He connects with God exactly where he is "at" - his feelings don't match what he wants to be doing!  He wants to be "up on his feet again" - feeling his oats - but his condition (feelings) betray his true condition of heart, soul, and spirit.  He is miserable - and his feelings of misery are coloring the way he sees life at that very moment.  Thank goodness for David's example - by studying what he did with his "feelings", we can learn what we are supposed to "do" with them.  We are to bring them to the one that actually created them!  He made us this way, so it stands to reason that he is the one that can help us get to a place of "standing strong" again!

Depression "gets us down" - we "feel" like we are under a load of bricks and we just cannot possibly get out from under them.  Try as we might, no amount of "self-help" is going to do it for us!  This kind of "misery" or "despair" is best left to the expert - God!  Here's what David did:

- He let his misery out before God.  He did not keep it bottled up, shoved into denial, or covered over with a false "mask" of "I'm okay".  Here is the beginning of hope for those in depression - getting it out in the open.  When we can finally begin to talk about what we are experiencing - that "ton of bricks" burden that is weighing us down - we can begin to connect with hope.  

- He reminds God of his promises.  David knew God's promises - he studied them, incorporating them into his life.  Now, in his despair, he recounts them to the one who made them!  David had the promise that "I will never leave you, nor forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6) - now he brings it into practice in his life.  He had the promise that "He is like a tree that is planted near a stream of water. It always bears its fruit at the right time. Its leaves don't dry up.      Everything godly people do turns out well" (Psalm 1:3) - he feels pretty "dry" right now and he calls upon God to bring the refreshing he so earnestly needs.

- He wants to understand what gets him to the place of misery he is in.  He asks God to help him not only understand the things that will bring him out of his despair, but what it is that can keep him out of it in the first place!  No amount of "self-help" will get us to the place of recognizing the root of our misery - that is a job best left to God.  He delights in showing us the "path" that got us into the pit because he didn't create us to "dwell" in the pit!

David is counting on God to turn the circumstances around in his life - getting him on his feet again.  This seems way to simple to one buried under a load of depression, but I can tell you this - the bricks in that pile are removed one at a time.  The master brick-layer is God - he has a use for each "BRICK" in our pile.  As we allow him to remove those weighty bricks of despair, misery, and depression, he will make something more beautiful from them than we might possibly imagine.  In my own times of depression, I have found this to be true.  God can make beauty from what I see as nothing more than ugliness!  It is in the one who "handles" the bricks that the beauty is evident!