The Sad Blog
Christians get sad.
Sadness isn’t weakness or a lack of faith, it’s a reminder that we need Jesus.
Do you ever feel like you have so much to say that you can’t say a word? Or that you are so excited in your belly about the things to come, but you can’t move? Or your mind is all over the place swirling (or squirreling) with thoughts about the travesties and injustices of the world; the difficulty of making a living and caring for your family, fear of the future, your health problems, and so on, that you can’t focus on anything? We can end up tongue tied and confined (usually to my recliner which I love by the way, but we have become too attached). The end result is dumbness and numbness; you can’t speak, you can’t move, and you sure as heck aren’t thinking right. I feel you. I know it’s time for me to kick it into gear, four on the floor, and do what God has called me to do above and beyond what I am already doing. But I’m just not feeling it and I’m a feely girl.
As I have been pondering this state I am in, I can legitimately point to several events going on in my life that could explain the way I am feeling or not feeling, but the Spirit didn’t give me that out. I had to face the fact that maybe I was just sad. But how can a Christian be sad? We have every good gift from the Father above (James 1:17), we have the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), and we have hope and a future (Jer. 29:11). Being sad just doesn’t seem to fit into this equation. Holy Spirit gave me a great, timely demonstration of how this can happen. This time of year here in Ohio is tough. We have had weeks of cloudy days. The entire month of January was dismal, dark, and somewhat depressing. We occasionally call it “winter depression” or “blue January.” It’s also known by the acronym SAD, which is a seasonal affective disorder provoked by seasonal change. SAD is often linked to a lack of exposure to the sun due to cloudy and shorter days. You can experience a persistent low mood, a loss of pleasure or interest in normal everyday activities, irritability, anxiety, feelings of guilt and hopelessness, fatigue, decreased ability to focus or concentrate, and more. Check, check, and check. This could explain why I’m feeling the way I am, case closed. But Holy Spirit had more to say. This physical SAD had affected my spiritual condition. Remember, “The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual” (1 Cor. 15:46, NIV).
The first perfect man, Adam, gave us one kind of body, from the earth. The second perfect man, Jesus, the last Adam, gave us another kind of body, a life-giving spirit. From the first we are made of dust, but from the last Adam we are made heavenly (1 Cor. 15:45-48). For believers, the promise is sure: we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. So, for now, we have to subdue the fleshly man because it has an impact on our heavenly spirit. Do you find yourself SAD in your spiritual life? Could it be brought on by a change in seasons in your relationship and journey with God? Maybe you feel the shift, and it is affecting you. You’re excited for the new season, but sad to leave the old season. You discover yourself caught in the middle or in a rut. Could it be due to a lack of Sonshine?
Do you know that every time we are in a funk it is because we are out of sync with God? There is no other reason under the sun for this blue funk. We get out of sync because the circadian rhythm that God created in us, humans, is out of order. This is referred to as asynchronization, a big word that refers to the condition in which two or more things do not work in unison or are uncoordinated. Are you seeing what I am? A circadian rhythm is the physical, mental, or emotional behavioral change we experience in a 24-hour cycle. Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, but food intake, stress, physical activity, social environment, and temperature also affect them. Environmental influences have a huge effect on our circadian rhythms and, in the flesh, we tend to blend. For example, if our environment is dark, cold, negative, and depressive, we can become those things if we are not careful. One of my all-time favorite singers is Karen Carpenter. One of her songs that I still sing quite often is “Rainy days and Mondays always get me down” (of course on rainy days and Mondays, Lord help us all if Monday is a rainy day because I will be belting out this classic with much fervor).
Talkin to myself and feelin’ old
Sometimes I’d like to quit
Nothin’ ever seems to fit
Hangin’ around
Nothin’ to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down
What I’ve got they used to call the blues
Nothin' is really wrong
Feelin’ like I don’t belong
Walkin’ around
Some kind of lonely clown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down
Right now, I am singing along into my coffee cup, because I don’t have a hairbrush close by, and I am feeling this song, it’s truth, the struggles we have in life, big and small, significant, and insignificant. It all matters. God understands this. He is with us through all of it. Unfortunately, the devil tries to get in on it too. The devil knows that he cannot touch us or infiltrate our bodies, he has no legal right, but he can affect us from the outside world, which, as we know, has spiritual implications. I also call it SAD, sin affective disorder. It is circulating in the atmosphere of this sinful world. To be sure, it is all around us. I think the Apostle Paul says it best.
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
The devil takes advantage of every happening and every change of season in our lives. Those are often times when we are vulnerable and can easily be deceived into believing things that we know aren’t true. However, we still give the enemy’s lies credence. And, by doing so, we stay put, we lose our voice, and our get up and go has got up and went. It’s SAD. I know it’s frustrating, exhausting, and confusing, but we, brothers and sisters, have the antidote. He is the Sun of Righteousness. “But for you who fear My name [with awe-filled reverence] the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. And you will go forward and leap [joyfully] like calves [released] from the stall” (Malachi 4:2). Hallelujah! Amen!
We can change the trajectory of our disorder by turning our faces to the Son and remaining there for as long as humanly possible and then some. Soak up the Son. It’s the only way out of that chair and into your calling. Hold on, the forecast is shifting. The projected weather pattern for February is sunshine for the foreseeable future. Brighter days are ahead for you and me.
To God be the glory forevermore, Amen!
