Sometimes I feel like I have a dark cloud over my head.  I don’t feel like this all of the time, but some days, or even weeks, I can feel that way.  I’m not sure if you call it depression or not, but I suppose it can be a mild form of a depressed state.

Feeling A Cloud Over Your Head

It is not something that keeps me from working or taking care of my family.  But it is something that I sometimes feel as I am living out my day.

I can go weeks and weeks without feeling this way, but then sometimes I will for a period of time.  Often it can be explained as being the result of stressful circumstances, fatigue, or disappointments.  But sometimes I can feel it even when an honest evaluation of my situation proves that I am a blessed man with little to complain about.

I know I am not alone in this.  Everybody, even the most exuberant among us, have days when we feel down.  It is normal.

So what do you do when you feel down for a period of time?  Some people hide in a room and turn out the lights.  They call in sick, get negative on social media, and retreat into an emotional hole.  This is rarely a good idea.

Here are twelve things you can do to get through a time when you feel a shadowy cloud over your life…

1. Pray:  Often when we feel down, prayer and time with God in the scriptures is the first thing to go.  But consider God’s Word that say, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)  Maybe you don’t feel like praying, but you need to do so.  You need to press into the Lord.
2. Dare to believe:  Remember, you don’t feel great.  That blasted cloud.  But dare to believe that, regardless of how you feel, God really does care for you.  Cast “all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)  The more I learn about dealing with my dark cloud the more I have faith in the Lord.  I say, “Lord I feel that cloud today.  Nothing feels as good as it should.  But one thing I know.  You care for me whether I feel like you do or not.  My feelings don’t change the fact of your love for me.”  I cannot tell you how important this kind of faith is to your spiritual and emotional health.
3. Rest:  I said before that it is not a great idea to hide in some dark room when you are down.  But it is true that sometimes a little rest in a dark room could be good.  Many times our emotional state is the result of fatigue.  Sometimes the cloud is an indicator that your systems are depleted and it is time to slow down for a spell.  You don’t want to languish there, but it is sometimes a very good thing to get some extra rest to rejuvenate.
4. Go for a walk outside:  Get out of the house or the office and walk outside.  Sometimes the fresh air, the more expansive perspective is a great help to seeing the world in a fuller and more positive light.  Furthermore, it gets your body moving, blood flowing, and this results in more oxygen to your brain and often a much more resourceful state of mind.  Sometimes listening to upbeat music as you walk can lift the spirit.
5. Look up:  When you are down, you tend to look down.  Force yourself to look up.  Go outside and look into the sky.  Maybe even climb a hill, or go to an upper floor of a building and look from a higher elevation.  Just the perspective change can let you know that the world is bigger than your circumstances or challenges.  Looking down depresses.  Looking up lifts you to fresh dimensions of hope.
6. Force a resourceful posture:  God made our bodies and minds to work together.  When you feel down, your shoulders tend to slump.  You often curve your back and drop your chin.  Choose instead to sit up straight, throw your shoulders back, lift your chin and choose a smile.  Some people say this is when you “fake it until you make it.”  I don’t think it is faking it.  I simply think you are choosing a better path.  Try this out.  You will be surprised with how much power you can have over your own mood, just with posture.
7. Don’t isolate:  I can’t stress this enough.  People who are depressed usually flee from interaction with others.  Yet that isolation only fuels the depression.  Be a part of a group.  This is why our regular, weekly, involvement in church is so important.  We were never meant to do life alone.  You might not always feel like being with people, and it is ok to be alone sometimes, but it is vital that we have regular and positive relationship with others.
8. Serve Someone Else:  Get out of yourself and get your focus off yourself.  Orbiting around your cloud only stirs up the cloud and makes it look bigger.  It is an excessive focus on yourself.  Look at someone else’s need and try to meet it in some way.  This can make such a difference.
9. Eat well:  When you are down you can crave sugars, or mood altering drugs/alcohol.  Don’t do that.  Eat plenty of vegetables, healthy proteins, fruit, and whole grains.  In a physical sense, you really are what you eat.  And a healthy body can be a resourceful home for a vibrant soul.
10. Exercise rigorously and regularly:  It really is a good idea to have a routine exercise plan you live out.  You must find what works for you and do it.
11. Embrace the cloud:  This is important.  Accept that sometimes you are going to feel like you are under the cloud.  Sometimes you will do these twelve things and still feel the cloud for a while.  Don’t let yourself be discouraged by that.  Learn to live with a mood on occasions.  Sometimes I feel that cloud and I say to God, “Lord I feel the cloud today.  I am going to get up anyway, pray, believe, relate to others.  Help me move forward despite the cloud and not be defined by the cloud’s shadow.”
12. Ask yourself what you can learn about yourself during this time:  Sometimes the down times, when you are desperate for God’s strength and wisdom, can be the times of greatest learning.  These are the times when you learn your limits and God’s limitlessness.  Ask the Lord to teach you during these times.

Let me say, that there are some people for whom the cloud is much more serious.  There are levels of depression that can be much more severe than what I have described here.  For such people, seeking godly professional help can be very important.  No one should ever be ashamed to get the kind of medical and spiritual counsel they need to get through a severe season of depression.  If I am describing you, I encourage you to seek help.  There are people that can assist you in your recovery from crippling depression.

Question:  What are things that help you get through a down time?  You can leave a comment by clicking here.

What makes a Bible verse someone’s favorite?  It is typically because there has been a moment or moments in their life where that passage of God’s Word met a need at a very deep level.  It may have been a time of deep pain, or a moment of life transition, or perhaps it was shared with them by a very special person.

Favorite Bible Verses

John 3:16 is special to me because it reminds me of what Christ did to save my soul and bring me to God…

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 8:28 is powerful to me for it has helped me hold onto hope knowing that even when life doesn’t make sense (and sometimes, for me , it doesn’t seem to), God can make sense out of my life…

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

I love John 4:24 because my Grandfather on my Dad’s side once shared that verse with me.  I don’t remember everything about that conversation, but I remember his heartfelt passion when he spoke.  Every time I read or hear this passage, I see his face.  He has been dead for 16 years, but he still is on my mind each time I think of this statement of Jesus…

“God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

I have scores and scores of favorite verses, passages of scripture that have become mile markers in my spiritual journey.  I suspect that before my life is over I will have many more such special verses.  As the Word of God encounters me in the ups and downs of life I will cherish different parts of Scripture that speak to me, shape my views, and challenge me to higher heights.

I look forward to what God will say to me next.

One thing I have learned is this…For you to have favorite Bible verses you have to be a student of the Bible.  You need to do the following…

1. Read the Bible.  Do it consistently.  Do it expectantly.
2. Believe the Bible.  Trust that God knows what he is doing and follow what he says in his Word.
3. Apply the Bible.  As the tread of our lives grips hold of the road of Scripture, let us follow the path it lays before us.  Let’s obey its commands, believe its promises, adopt its views, and heed its warnings.  When we do we see that his word is alive in us and that God is truly guiding.

Question:  What about you?  Do you have some favorite verses?  If so would you share them with us?  You never know, your verse just might become our favorite too.  You can leave a comment by clicking here.

There are great benefits to a long kept commitment.

Commitments Rewards

Today just happens to be my 24^th Wedding Anniversary.  My wife, Stefanie, and I have been committed to each other for a long time and have promised to be so for the rest of our lives.

The other day we went on a mini-vacation to celebrate.  Prior to going on our trip I gave my wife and I some homework.  I made each of us a little book where each page represented a year of our marriage.  I made her book with the even years (ie:  1990, 1992, 1994, etc…) and my book with the odd years (1991, 1993, you get the picture).  We were each to write all the memories we could remember about that particular year of our lives together.  I thought it would be hard to do, but the pages were small and I was amazed that on most years I could fill the page.

When we went on our trip, every few hours we would get out our books and share a few of our memories.  The memories were about our starting out together, having kids, watching them grow, enduring hard times, surgeries, losses, victories, challenges.  We have been together now over half of our lives.  We learned that we have shared a lot together.

It hasn’t all been great.  We have not always been easy on each other.  To add to the mix I am in the ministry and often the demands on me and my family are relentless.  That has tested our metal.  Not to mention having four kids.  Lots of drama there.

Sometimes we have lost sight of each other.  But through it all there has been one constant.  We have kept our commitment to stay together, to keep on supporting each other and our family.  We have done it when it was easy (which isn’t very often).  We have done it when it was grueling and the rewards for sticking it out seemed non-existent.

I can remember one time in our early years of marriage where it had become hard.  We had been under stress for a long time and had begun to lose touch with each other.  The relationship was no longer fun.  If fact it was painful.  We were struggling to have hope.

During that dark time I remember each of us coming to the other and saying, “I don’t like this.  I don’t even think it will get any better.  But I made a commitment to you and to God and I will not back down from it.  Even if we are miserable for the rest of our lives I am sticking it out in this marriage.”

I know, that isn’t very romantic.  Or isn’t it?

You see if we had not exhibited that commitment through the toughest times some two decades ago, we would not have been able to celebrate 24 years of family life just a few days ago.  The fact is that it has not been all misery.  If fact it has been the opposite.  We have supported each other, raised four amazing children, and built a meaningful ministry to a lot of people.  We love each other.

But we would have not known those good years if we hadn’t stuck it out even when we didn’t feel the hope.

You see, hope was there, we just couldn’t see it.  But that was ok, because we had commitment.  Commitment can carry you through the valleys of hopelessness and take you to new mountains of hope in the future.

That is what our commitment has done for us and I am so very thankful to God that it has.

The benefits of commitment are rich and wonderful, though they are hard won.

This post is dedicated to my beautiful bride of the last 24 years.  Thank you for your commitment.  May we continue to celebrate many more years of milestones for many decades to come.  I love you!

Question:  In this post I have spoken of the benefits of commitment in marriage.  Can you think of other relationships where commitment pays off?  You can leave a comment by clicking here.