Up thoughts lift me over down times.
I don’t have to feel “blue.” I can choose my moods like I choose my music.
I won’t let go until I find a blessing in everything that happens.
We are children of the Light. We build each other up by letting go of the blues and looking up to blue skies!
Responsive Reading for Sunday, September 29
Human depression has been around a long time. The story of Adam and Eve and their first two sons, Cain and Abel, is found in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Cain, the oldest son, saw that things seemed to work out well for his little brother, Abel, who was cheerful. “Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen [downhearted, discouraged, pouting, “down in the mouth”]. So the LORD said to Cain: ‘Why are you so resentful and crestfallen? If you do well, you can hold up your head” (Genesis 4:5-7).
All: Up thoughts lift me over down times.
King Saul had the blues. “The spirit of the LORD [trust in the goodness of God] had departed from Saul and he was tormented by an evil spirit [a bad mood] . . . . [Whenever Saul got the “blues”] David would take the harp and play, and Saul would be relieved and feel better, for the [bad mood] would leave him” (I. Sam 16:14-23).
All: I don’t have to feel “blue.” I can choose my moods like I choose my music.
Jacob struggled with depression. He was “beside himself,” wrestling with his conscience all night long, in the form of a man who “then said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go until you bless me.’ ‘What is your name?’ the man [God’s messenger] asked. He [Jacob] answered, ‘Jacob.’ Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel” [a prince with God, a spiritual overcomer] (Genesis 38:25-39:4).
All: I won’t let go until I find a blessing in everything that happens.
St. Paul shared a great anti-depressant: “For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. . . . . Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do” (I. Thessalonians 5:5-11).
All: We are children of the Light. We build each other up by letting go of the blues and looking up to blue skies!