Day 23
Get up and eat
—1 KINGS 19:5
All human beings have the capacity for depression because we all experience things that are, in truth, decidedly able to depress us. God created us for Eden, but since the Fall, there is so much of Hell on this earth. We face the finality of death and the unspeakable sorrow that follows. We encounter smaller deaths as relationships crumble, leaving us alone and shattered. We, or the people we love get sick and fear creeps in. We face a little bit of death every time our own hearts disappoint us with their pettiness and self-absorption. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t experience depression at some point in our lives.
My decade in the desert was accompanied by a pervading darkness that made me feel, in many ways, like I was walking through quicksand. In a condensed period of time, my family experienced a series of these “smaller deaths” that are common to all of us. I lost my passion and my joy and my steps were too heavy to go looking for them.
I don’t think there is a single person reading this today who can’t relate. Maybe you’ve been there or maybe you currently are there: stuck in a dark place that you fear you will never escape from... stuck in patterns of thought and behavior that are keeping you from moving forward.
Today, even if the darkness feels complete, I want you to hear God’s voice saying to you, “Get up and eat” (1 Kings 19:5). What strange words to hear when you need a miracle more than a meal. But when God’s voice tells you to do something, no matter how commonplace that thing is, when you do it, you find His power there and bit by bit the darkness recedes. The beginning of the way out of the desert is by obeying God’s voice in the little things.
This truth is not a self-help strategy. The theology is not that God helps those who help themselves. In fact, when we try in our own strength to dispel the depression that affects our lives, we are usually left more defeated than before. This Truth says that “‘it is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit’, says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6).
When we reach for the Bible instead of the “bottle” (whatever that might be for you), we take a tiny step toward Him and His power meets us there.
When we speak a word of kindness, we reach out a trembling hand toward Him and His power meets us there.
When we listen to a song that draws us close to God instead of listening to the lies in our minds, we say yes to Jesus and His power meets us there.
When we submit our wills to Almighty God, trusting in His power to deliver us, every tiny, mundane step we take is infused with His life-altering, miracle-working power.
Hear his voice today and take a tiny step toward Him, once again or for the first time, saying: “Lord, I need you. I lay everything at Your feet today and I ask for help to hear Your voice and obey it.”
“Much as we wish, not one of us can bring back yesterday or shape tomorrow. Only today is ours, and it will not be ours for long, and once it is gone it will never in all time be ours again. Thou only knows what it holds in store for us...The chance to speak the truth, to show mercy, to ease another’s burden. The chance to resist evil...the chance to be brave, to be strong, to be glad.”
—Frederick Buechner
