You’ve heard that it was said, “Depression is anger turned inward,” but I tell you that depression isn’t only anger turned inward, but love withheld and not only love withheld, but love expiring in one’s heart. That’s why it hurts so much. It’s spoiling, turning rancid, inside of us. Love is meant to be given, not saved only for those who deserve it because, you know as well as I do that there are precious few who truly deserve our love.

Hoarded love hurts the hoarder far more than the ones they spite. Love isn’t always love. Sometimes, people feign love for reward. Sometimes, people will mask their true intentions just to get what they want and leave us in the dust - ‘hit ‘n’ run’ we call it. As I mentioned in a couple of prior DD posts, there are four different kinds of love, as given in Greek - agape, storge, philia, and eros. Love was never meant to be kept to oneself. It is meant to be shared and it hurts when we cannot or worse, do not, share it. Imagine if Jesus withheld His love. Think for a minute where you would be if it were not for Jesus’ invaluable gift of grace afforded us by His self-sacrifice on the cross. “Greater love has no one than this that a man would die for his friends.”

Love is what makes the impossible possible. “With God, all things are possible.” In 1 John 4, we read that “God is love,” but that doesn’t mean that’s all He is. God’s ways are all love and all-loving, but that is only one facet of His incredibly complex nature and character. Many people fail to believe in God because they have chosen to reject a single facet of Him instead of taking on the task of continual discovery of Him and His nature. Nobody who has gone on a spiritual journey to discover God has ever been disappointed. God promises that those who truly seek Him will truly find Him. Plus, He even reveals Himself to those who do not seek Him because He’s awesome like that. (Isaiah 65:1)

There isn’t a single problem in the world that cannot be solved with love. None. No matter if it is a financial, physical, or emotional problem, it has a solution in love. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, yes, we become vulnerable and vulnerability is the last thing we want to feel sometimes, but our lives aren’t only about our feelings, it’s about pleasing God. God is pleased when we live like Him and act like Him. He is not fake and He’s as genuine as it gets. Our standard is Jesus. Jesus laid down His life for the betterment of all people and He was not ignorant of the devil’s scheme in any way. He did what He did BECAUSE of His knowledge of the devil’s schemes and He did what it took to defeat Satan and his demons forever - on out behalf. That is a hero. He wants us to follow Him and be a hero, as well.

Far too many people are lonely. They do not ‘get outside themselves’ often and they do not exercise love and grace wherever they go. Loneliness is also a byproduct of obsessive compulsive selfishness. But what is the main reason so many people are lonely? We can get into politics and religion, which have been sources of trouble for millennia, but we’ll stick to the personal level as I usually do here. Let’s talk about sadness.

Sadness affects us all from time to time, yet there are those of us who just can’t seem to shake that ‘sad’ feeling, whether it is seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.) or just routine sadness and disappointment in our fellow human beings for the nonsense we see on a daily basis. We want what’s best for ourselves and others and it seems that not enough of us are even trying to do our best. It’s one thing to be defeated in battle, but to not even stand up and fight is far worse of a result.

Let’s go deeper. Sadness really is disappointment in ourselves and others. We know deep in our hearts that mankind as a whole is capable of doing far, far better than what we see on a daily basis. We can even become bitter toward certain people, especially when they deliberately oppose us and the things we are hoping to do, like help people and advance God’s agenda to lead the lost to Him. Bitterness and resentment can cause us to bottle up our love and compassion because some people just rankle our nerves and they prove themselves unworthy of our love, but Jesus still welcomed Judas and called him ‘friend’ at the Last Supper, allowed Thomas to feel His scars, and He restored Peter after Peter denied that he knew Jesus three times. Are we so quick to restore others to their former place in our hearts?*

Current events always seem to be difficult especially when your anxiety level is high as a norm. It’s almost as if the devil is pushing every one of our buttons. And he is. We sometimes become disappointed then frustrated then outraged when people just seem to be deliberately doing the wrong thing. “Don’t they know any better?” You might have noticed political theater where certain events are staged to advance an agenda then these staged events are purported as if real by a gaslighting media. What would their agenda be? Satan cries out that we should be more tolerant of his ways. Satan thrives in chaos. The more of his ways we tolerate, the more chaos ensues.

Chaos is not just a theory. Chaos is not order and order is not chaos. Some people thrive in chaos while the rest of us thrive in order. Order cannot be reached within chaos unless the God of order enters the chaos. (Note: God will not enter situations unless He is welcomed, but He will, from time to time, enter into a situation because He is sovereign over all the Universe.)

We all want to see the plans. Heck, we would like to partake in the development of the plans. But that’s God’s job and we would only contribute ideas, no matter how wise they might seem to us, that lack the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24) . Some call it ‘the mind of Christ.’

Look. Let’s be real. We aren’t God and we don’t have the love of Jesus in our hearts. How are we to actually ‘love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (body)‘ and ‘love our neighbors as ourselves’? How can we pick up eggs, butter, and a gallon of milk without money? We need to RECEIVE God’s agape love in order to give it away. “Freely you have received, freely give,” Jesus said. (Matthew 10:8) If we don’t freely receive, how can we freely give? If you receive free money, money you did not work for, it spends differently the money you worked hard to get. Jesus’ statement leans on a rigid truth - God’s resources of love and compassion never fail; meaning they never run out. All we need to do from this point going forward, besides repent for not having loved as He wants us to, is to RECEIVE His love and get to work.

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, I welcome You into my heart as if I never have before. I open my soul to You, my Lord and Savior, to come and make any changes You see fit to make. I welcome You, Holy Spirit, into my spirit to teach me and guide me into all truth and be the rudder to my ship. I thank You, Almighty God, for Your sustaining power and love that keeps me going especially on days when I’m not feelin’ it. Thank You for being awesome and holy and righteous and good and perfect and merciful toward me. If it wasn’t for You, I’d be in a very different place. Halleluyah!

I am sorry for hoarding love; love You wanted me to share with others. Love is like our daily bread and I now understand how important it is that I help feed Your sheep with what You have given me. Fill me with agape love from this day forward and show me how I can be of service to You every day of the rest of my life.

Have Your way in every cell of my body. I need Your divine help and I get out of the way and ask that You would transform me starting right now. Help me to be a loving person just like Jesus.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

*This is NOT to say we should welcome those who have hurt us back into the place where they can hurt us again. Some people prove themselves not to be trustworthy and cannot be trusted. But even they can be restored if they make proper apologies and restitution for what they did. If they refuse to do two simple things, then feel free to keep them safely outside your inner circle. Sadly, loving ourselves often means we must defend ourselves from the attacks of others. Jesus hung out with tax collectors and ‘sinners,’ yes, but you will notice how they received Him and the Pharisees and religious leaders - who should have warmly welcomed Him into their hearts - did not.

Title Photo credit: Anthony Tran on Unsplash