¹ As the deer pants for streams of water,
   so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. 
   When can I go and meet with God?
³ My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember
   as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
   under the protection of the Mighty One

with shouts of joy and praise
   among the festive throng.

⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.

⁶ My soul is downcast within me;
   therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
   the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
   in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
   have swept over me.

⁸ By day the LORD directs his love,
   at night his song is with me—
   a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ I say to God my Rock,
   “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
   oppressed by the enemy?”
¹⁰ My bones suffer mortal agony
   as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
   “Where is your God?”

¹¹ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
   Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
   for I will yet praise him,
   my Savior and my God.

I have diabetes, and my health insurance has a plan

that includes a phone call every couple of months that

goes over my prescriptions and general health to see

if I am keeping well and doing the prescribed activities,

etcetera.  They ask a battery of questions- and one that

always makes me smile and answer neither yes nor no is

“Have you experienced any depression that has affected your

work or social activities within the last 3 months?”

Yes. No. Maybe.

It is the middle of February.  We have been through a brutal

winter.  There has been very little sunshine. 

Am I depressed?  Sometimes.

I hate answering these questions in regard to my physical health only.

This is a very deep condition.  One with mental, spiritual and family

implications and I basically hedge and lie.  I say, no.  I am not

depressed to the point that it affects me socially or in the amount of

work I can accomplish.

I think depression is very much a part of the healthy human condition.

I once heard Billy Graham say that he had never been depressed and it

made him less real and effective for me ever since.  If you haven’t

ever looked up at life from a place of profound depression then I don’t

think you you have ever seen the true face of mankind. 

God put Jeremiah into a position where he was in a pit.  In a prison of

despair and depression to give him a view of the depravity and void man

is in when separated from God. 

So, am I depressed?

YES.

Does it affect my activities?

YES.

Can it be overcome?

YES.

Do I know where to go to find solace and comfort?

YES.

Of course, the same questions could be asked about Joy!

Do I know Joy?

Yes.

Does it affect my activities?

Absolutely.

Is this an overcoming emotion in my life?

Yes.

Aren’t we all a mixture of emotions and points of view?

We NEED shadows- they are created by our place in the sunshine-

I don’t intend to dwell in the darkness, but it adds character and truth

to my life and testimony. 

And for me, that testimony is set down in the first lines of this psalm-

As the deer pants for streams of water,
   so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. 
   When can I go and meet with God?

AMEN.

Experiencing Life through the light and shadows-

Experiencing it in the Light of God’s truth.