Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Sunday I gave some devotional thoughts before we shared the communion supper.  As I looked out at the assembly, a large crowd nearly filling our 1,000 seat auditorium, I thought to myself that it was our family who were about to have dinner with each other and the Lord.  And that's a good thing.  Our family.  Us.  The dinner was for us and the assembly for us as well.  Sunday morning services are not really for the outsider; Our assemblies are not for outreach, but for inreach and upreach.  We are there to give each other courage and strength.  We speak to ourselves in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  We spend time in prayer calling on our Father to bless us and to bless others also.  We let God speak to us through His word, so that we might learn more about Him and His ways.  We are there for edification and growth and reunion and communion.  But then I thought...

   Should we not invite others to dinner?  Don't we ever invite outsiders to our homes for dinner with our family?  And of course, I had to answer, yes.  Yes we do.  And while it generally is not the purpose of our dinners together, we do invite others to join us and we fellowship with them and laugh with them, there are even times when we cry with them.  And when we have done all of these things and the dinner is finished, I think to myself, I am closer to those folks than I was before they came for dinner.  I know more about them than I did before.  I enjoyed being with them.  I hope we can be friends.

   I'm thinking, that is the way it ought to be with the dinner we share on Sunday morning.  We need to put some extra emphasis on it.  Be a bit more open with it; call others to share it with us.  Invite the lost to dinner and let them see the faith, communion and union we share in that one great act of worship and fellowship.  It would be a bit more like home and hospitality, don't you think?  And...and...it's just possible that when they see it and share it and talk with us and laugh just a little, that they might like to come again.  And just think, they might even want to join our family and invite some people that they know.  Should that happen, and we want it to, we could all rejoice speaking the words of the scarecrow when he realized he could do math and said, "Oh joy, rapture."

Thursday, September 02, 2010

What I've Got They Used to Call the Blues

There are days when hope seems distant and happiness always out of reach; Days that drag, crawling along at a snails pace and leaving us tired, lost and alone, even if there is a crowd surrounding us.  Karen Carpenter sang about it.  Remember "Rainy Days and Mondays"? 

What I've got they used to call the blues
Nothing's really wrong
Feelin' like I don't belong...

Yea, that's the kind of day I'm talking about.  We all go through them.  We're there, but not really.  People talk to us and we respond, but never actually join a conversation; We're aloof without trying to be, distant and cut off.  There are times when people think we're being stand-offish, but it's not that at all.  And it's not really something that you can easily control.  It may come from tiredness, illness or even an argument with your spouse or a close friend and there you are...Rainy Days and Mondays.

So what do you do about it?  Pray?  Funny thing, you don't feel like praying.  Laugh?  That's even less likely.  Jogging or a long walk where you can just be alone with your thoughts?  Wow.  That often drags me father down, because I get into those thoughts and they were bad enough without thinking them.  Once I start concentrating on them I get sucked farther in as if it were a black hole and the vacuum is inescapable. 

For the majority of usI have no real advice as to what one should do when we get the blues or are depressed, filled with sorrow, sadness, emptiness or dejection.  I do know that for most of us it will pass.  Tomorrow or the next day we will feel better and a smile will be back on our face.  And for those who are like this, well, just live with it for a day or two. 

For those who live a life time with the blues and depression is not just a momentary thing, you can't take it lightly and you can't just ignore it.  You have to get help.  I hate that you have it and it makes me feel badly thinking that there are people out there who feel the way I do at this moment, but they won't get over it as I know I will.  I know also that there are people out there who have knowledge as to what to do for you and they can help and want to help.  Seek them out.  Don't live with it by yourself.  Here are some things you can do:

  1. Find supportive friends and spend time with them.  It needs to be those who really love you and that you can pour your heart out to
  2. Exercise.  One of the worst things to do is lie in bed all day.  Remember Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away" and the woman who said, "A bad day's when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been"?  You can't stay in bed, depression only gets worse.
  3. Take a walk in the woods
  4. Try a relaxing hot bath
  5. Watch a funny movie or comedy
  6. Go out to lunch with a friend or just have a friend over for coffee
  7. Spend some time in the sun today - this one's very important - the sun has healing powers just by brightening our day
  8. Challenge your negative thinking
 Right now I have the blues, but writing about them has helped my mood.  I hope something said here might help yours.