HOPES, DREAMS, & GOALS
I can’t tell you how many times I have heard people in the church say depressed people just need to be happy.
It’s true that hopes, dreams, & goals can help you stay on the path to a happier life; however, depression – fear – sadness. It is something that every person will experience and have to learn how to handle in their life.
The most recent example I have of this happened three weeks ago. We have a group or “school” using our church facility and they bring in guest speakers and different people to lead worship occasionally. Recently it has been the same person for music consecutively. This person is going through an extremely difficult situation. Their son made a plan to end his life and was waiting to be left alone in the house to carry it out. Thankfully his family noticed something was wrong and discovered his plan and immediately sought out medical help. (This is the right thing to do people! IF you have a loved one who needs help, please help them don’t just shrug it off.) So this family member who is leading the worship had let a few people know what was happening so we could pray for them. The guest speaker for that week then began to speak about how you can’t let the darkness overwhelm you. That people who suffer from depression are week, they have no reason to be depressed because God gives them hope. The more this person spoke, the more I wanted to just slap them across the face and go apologize to the person dealing with this situation for having to listen to this.
Now I do believe in God very much and I do agree that He gives hope to those in the darkness. There have been many times in my own struggles where I have to remind myself that God loves me, and He is always there to protect me. I have seen God’s goodness in my life time and time again. I still struggle with depression even in the midst of joyful seasons in my life. If you look at Psalms in the Bible King David experienced this the most. It gives me hope to see someone in the bible who can cry out to God in times of pain, darkness, and suffering with such an honest cry.
Psalms 17:1 “O Lord, hear my plea for justice. Listen to my cry for help. Pay attention to my prayer, for it comes from honest lips.”
Psalms 6:4-7 “Return, O Lord, and rescue me. Save me because of your unfailing love.5 For the dead do not remember you. Who can praise you from the grave?[b] 6 I am worn out from sobbing. All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears. 7 My vision is blurred by grief; my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies.”
How many nights have I laid awake because of fear, anxiety, sadness, and self-pity. I know even thousands of years ago someone went through this and there was hope. He lived a long life. David made it through all the nights of darkness.
Sometimes people say stupid things. I have to let go of what that person said but it grieves my heart to know that it could have caused more harm than bringing hope to someones family situation.
So in those times of darkness in my personal life, I set my eyes on the future. I recognize that life is difficult and all I want to do is give up. But then I remind myself. I want to see the world. I want to travel to every country, I want to experience the love of people in many nations. I want to try food that I can’t even imagine eating. I want to be a grandmother one day teaching my grandchildren how to make a thanksgiving feast. I dream of making music videos with bluegrass roots. I hope to be a well known blogger in the future (I am still learning day by day). I dream about conquering my fears, going deep sea diving, ridding a zip line without loosing contentiousness from fear. I have a goal to get 5+ streams of revenue in my life so I can do things like buy my parents new cars, pay off their house, give away cars to people I know in need. Feed the homeless, create safe places for people to gather and be creative together.
We need to have many Hopes, Dreams, & Goals. So we can pursue them whether we are depressed or not, these desires and these visions can bring us back to the place of loving life abundantly and those around us.
Where will you be in the future?
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