O God, who will not let us go; May we, in this hour of worship, become aware that you are our constant companion; that even when chaos erupts, pain is severe, burdens are heavy, depression darkens the soul, you are with us. Lift us up, this hour, that we might find a reason for living greater than ourselves and begin this week to experience your blessing rather than the blahs. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good morning, again, to all of you. We are so glad you are here today on this rainy day. If this is the first time you have been with us, or if you have been gone for a little while, let me bring you up to speed. We have been talking, these last few weeks, about balance. We’ve been talking about God’s universal principle of balance, and how to put some balance back into our lives when they become unbalanced. We have talked about mental fitness, physical fitness, and spiritual balance. 

 

Today we are going to talk about emotional balance – about our instinctive, our intuitive feelings. We have very powerful feelings that derive from a variety of circumstances, from a variety of moods, and from a variety of relationships we encounter. 

 

We all know, when we are in a good place, our emotional energy is usually quite high. We have a feeling. We feel a sense of happiness, of contentment. We feel a sense of joy, and love, and compassion. We feel a sense of warmth and sensitivity, and in the immortal words of James Brown and the Famous Flames, “I feel good.” 

 

As you also know, there are things that can and do happen that cause us to run out of emotional energy. Sometimes these things are called “depression.” Sometimes people call it “burn-out.” Sometimes people call it “the blues.” I call it “the blahs.” 

 

Let me say from the get-go, we are not talking today about clinical depression. You know that.  You know that I know, and I know that you know there are emotional conditions in certain people that require professional, therapeutic treatment and medical care. That is not what we are talking about today. I am talking about the kinds of things that can happen to any of us and can drain any of us emotionally. 

 

One such person I found in the Bible is a guy named Elijah. We are going to be looking at him in a little more depth today. We are going to use him as an example. His story is found in First Kings. We are going to focus on Chapter 19, in particular. 

 

I am using Elijah, primarily, because he was a great man of God in a time when the people of Israel, and especially their leaders, were, quite frankly, unfaithful. Indeed, the queen of the land, Jezebel, challenged the priests and the prophets of God by bringing in her own pagan deities, and their own followers. These were people who followed Baal, a pagan god. To meet that challenge, Elijah arranged for a contest on a place called Mount Carmel. You may remember that from your Old Testament days. 

 

The people of the land were all called together to that mountain.   They were called by the religious leaders of the day to make a choice, to make a decision. Elijah looked at the people and said, “If the Lord is God, follow the Lord; but if Baal is God, then follow Baal.” 

 

To make a long story short, God acted through Elijah in such a mighty way the people, in that setting, chose the Lord. The prophets and followers of Baal were destroyed. 

 

Jezebel, the queen, was not present that day, but let me tell you, she was not happy. In fact, she sent a message to Elijah that said, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow, Elijah, I do not make your life like one of them.” 

 

Don’t you love getting those kinds of messages? 

 

The result: Elijah was depressed. He ran out, ran away, and went to the other side of the mountain. He hid under a tree. Later he hid in a cave. Still later he prayed to God this prayer, “Oh God, I am so depressed I want you to kill me.” 

 

Now, you may or may not have ever prayed that prayer, but I believe all of us have felt the feelings of depression, the feelings of being dejected, downcast, dispirited. So, what are some of the causes of those kinds of feelings? There are a number of things, obviously. I want to name six of them today.

 

Number 1: Fear. The first thing that can cause this, more than any other I know about, is fear. 

 

Randy and Cyd Coil, of this congregation, heard of the tragedy that took place Thursday at Northern Illinois University. It happened to take place in a building right next to where their daughter, Anna, lives in the dorm. They were frozen in fear this week until they heard the voice, on a cell phone, of their daughter assuring them she was safe. 

 

Let me tell you. In those moments – those emotional moments – those feelings can, literally, drain your energy.

 

Number 2: Resentment. Elijah said, “I am fed up with this, Lord. I am fed up with these people. I have had it! I don’t want to live anymore.” 

 

You experience, I experience, we all experience things that cause us to feel resentment.  Resentment can drain our emotional energy.

 

Number 3: A low sense of self worth. Some of you in this room will remember the day when you were a child, and how it was when one of your parents left home – forever.   You remember how you felt? Some of you adults in this room remember the letter that you may have found on the kitchen table that said, “I have left. Don’t try to reach me. Don’t try to call me. It is over. I simply do not love you anymore.” 

 

You remember how you felt. A low sense of self worth can drain our emotional energy.

 

Number 4: Anger. Some of you may have received a telegram like this. I did years ago. It said, quite frankly, “We regret to inform you that your son, your daughter, your husband, your brother, your 19-year-old is missing.” 

 

Your unfathomable anger can drain your emotional energy.

 

Number 5: Loneliness. Some of you know the feeling of waking up, and suddenly all the friends, all the relatives have gone back to their homes. There you are. It is just you in the space that used to be where two lived, but now there is just one. There is just you, and you are alone. Loneliness can drain our emotional energy.

 

Number 6: Worry. Some of you in this room know what it is like. You know what it feels like. That is what we are talking about today. Feelings. What it feels like to sit down across from your doctor, who with all of his or her compassion, looks you in the eye and says, “I’m afraid our news is not good.” 

 

Worry. Worry can drain our emotional energy.

 

Like Elijah, we have all had those times in our lives when we have been emotional basket cases. We have had good reasons to be down in the dumps. It happens. It happens to all of us. We know that. The problem is, when we are down in the dumps, we typically make four common mistakes that tend, almost invariably, to make things worse.

 

Mistake 1. We tend to focus on our feelings rather than the facts. Elijah, in Chapter 19, felt like a failure. He said, "Lord, I have had it. I am done. I have wasted my life.” 

 

That is what some of us call “emotional reasoning.” It goes something like this: “I feel this way, therefore, it must be so.” “I feel like a failure, therefore, I must be a failure.” “I feel like an unintelligent person, so I must be an unintelligent person.” “I feel like a lousy parent, therefore, I must be a lousy parent.” 

 

The fact is, feelings are real. Everybody knows that. However, feelings are not always facts. 

 

One day, early in our life together, Jan woke up and announced, “Rick, I don’t feel married.” 

 

And I said, “It doesn’t matter, Lady, you are.” 

 

Feelings and facts are not always the same.

 

Mistake 2. We compare ourselves with others. That is a mistake. Elijah looked at himself and said, “I’m no better than my ancestors.” 

 

When we are emotionally drained, we start comparing ourselves with others. Have you noticed that? It is not good. The reason it is not good is that it is a set-up for “the blahs.” Everybody is different. Everybody is unique. Only you can be you. 

 

Ladies, do you know when you get to heaven, God is not going to ask you, “Why were you not more like Oprah, or Katie, or Hillary, or Mother Teresa, or any other powerhouse woman you might name?” 

 

God is not going to ask me, “Why were you not more like Fred Craddock, or Henri Nouwen, or Max Lucado, or some other powerhouse preacher?” 

 

What God is going to ask you, and what God is going to ask me is, “Why weren’t you more just like you? I made you the way you are, and you are good just the way you are.” 

 

But you see… When we get emotionally drained, we tend to compare ourselves with our weaknesses with the strengths of others. We ignore the fact those folks have weaknesses, too. First of all, we usually don’t know anything about those weaknesses. And second, they may be weak in areas where we are strong. We don’t even know. Making comparisons with other people almost always leads to all kinds of trouble.

 

Mistake 3. We blame ourselves for things that aren’t our fault. Have you noticed that? When you are down… When you are not feeling good about yourself… You tend to blame yourself for things that simply are not your fault. Elijah, the perfect example, said, “Lord, I have been zealous for you. I have been telling the truth. I have confronted the evildoers. I have been your mouthpiece, and yet the people continue to reject your covenant.  They tear down your altars. They kill your prophets.” 

 

See what is going on here? In his dejection, Elijah blames himself for failing. He thinks he is a failure. He thought his job was to convert the whole nation of Israel. He says, “It is my fault. I have been working like crazy, but nobody has been changed or transformed.” 

 

Once you start assuming responsibility for other adults, you are setting yourself up to be depressed. We all know that is not true with little children. We, obviously, have to be responsible for them. But when they grow up, adults make their own decisions, and you are not responsible for those decisions. You can influence people, but you can’t control them. They have a free will just like you have a free will.

 

Mistake 4. We exaggerate the negative. Elijah tells God, “Lord, I am the only one left. I am the only faithful one left, and they are all trying to kill me. Everybody is out there to get me.” 

 

You probably don’t know that, unless you have read that text a little bit closer. What Elijah is doing here is having a nice little pity party. Anybody ever have one of those? Do you know anybody who has had a pity party? Have you ever been to one? They are really fun – a pity party. Elijah is having a little pity party here. He is sort of saying what kids say, “Everybody hates me. Nobody likes me. I think I’ll go eat worms.” 

 

The fact is, if you read First Kings 19, there is only one person who really hates Elijah. What is her name? Jezebel. That’s right. She is jealous of his popularity – popularity that has grown there in her country. She sees him, basically, as a troublemaker. So what does she do? She sends a messenger to him and says, “Get out of the country, or I am going to have you killed.” 

 

The joys of power politics! But Elijah takes that to mean, “Everybody out there is against me.” He is running across the desert. He is hiding under a tree. He hides later in a cave. If he had just stopped to think about it, if Jezebel had really wanted to kill him, would she send a messenger? No, she would have sent a hit man. She just wanted to scare him. She wanted to intimidate him. She didn’t want to kill him, but that is not what he hears. 

 

When you are emotionally drained, things get exaggerated. Everything seems to be just falling apart. The whole world stinks. That is a mistake that only makes things worse. 

 

That gives us some idea of some of the causes of emotional imbalance. They are certainly not all of them, but only a few. 

 

What about some of the cures? In our text today, let us see if we can get hold of some of the ways God helps Elijah. I believe they are ways that are just as applicable to your life and my life today as it was several thousand years ago.

 

Let me say again, in case you missed it first time around. If you or someone you know and love is showing signs of serious clinical depression, the first thing you do is you go to your doctor. I learned that years ago. You have to make sure there is no medical cause for the symptoms that we are seeing or feeling.   That is number one. Otherwise, you are going to go down a road you don’t want to go. But assuming that isn’t the case, then consider doing these four things:

 

Number 1: Rest your body. That is the first thing you need to do when you are emotionally drained. Have you ever noticed how you feel when that is going on? 

 

Let’s see what happens in this text. Elijah is in the cave. He is asleep, and he is hungry. He has gotten weak, and food has been provided. He eats, and then he goes back to sleep. Isn’t that interesting? Eat, sleep, eat, sleep. 

 

In her wonderful book, Eat, Pray, Love (I have mentioned this before), Elizabeth Gilbert describes a dark November night in her life, sitting on the bathroom floor at three o’clock in the morning in a state of hopeless despair. 

 

And then it occurred to me. Sometimes when people are in this state that I am right now, they approach God for help. [What a novel idea.] What I said to God through my gasping sobs was something like this: “Hello, God. I am Liz. Sorry to bother you at this hour, but I am in serious trouble. As you know, I am not an expert in praying, but can you please help me? I am desperate. I need help. I don’t know what to do. I need an answer. Please tell me what to do.” 

 

You ever been there? That is the prayer, she said, that she said over and over and over again: “Please tell me what to do.” 

 

She said:

 

I don’t know how many times I prayed that, but I just begged. And the crying went on forever, until, quite abruptly, it stopped. I lifted my forehead off the bathroom floor, surprised, wondering if I would see some great being there with me, but nobody was there. I was just alone, but not really alone. No, I was surrounded by something I can only describe as a little pocket of silence, so rare that I didn’t even want to exhale for fear of scaring it off. And then – you are going to think I am crazy – I heard a voice. It was not the Old Testament- Hollywood- Charlton Heston voice, but it was a voice inside of me, so perfectly wise, and calm, and compassionate. It was a voice that gave me an answer that will ever seal my faith in God. That voice said, “Go back to bed, because, Liz, you don’t need the final answer at three o’clock in your bathroom. Go back to bed, Liz, because I am here, and I love you. Go back to bed, because the only thing you need right now is some rest, so that you can take care of yourself. Go back to bed, so that when the storm comes, you will be strong enough to deal with it – and it will come, dear one, but not tonight. So go back to bed.”

 

Isn’t that great? People who are emotionally drained, folks, need rest.

 

Number 2: Release your frustrations. Everybody has his or her own way of doing that. I have some really fun ones, but I am not going to tell you about it. Complain, yell, scream, cry, pour your gut out, get it off your chest, visit with God, visit with your Christian friend, visit with someone. 

 

“The Lord came to Elijah and said, “What are you doing here Elijah?” 

 

He said, “Well I have been very zealous for you, Lord, but the people have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death.” 

 

You hear what is going on? He is telling God how he feels, and God is not interrupting, not criticizing, and God is not shocked by what Elijah said. God is just listening. Let it all out. Get some spiritual catharsis. It is cleansing. It helps to have a Christian friend. Sometimes, a counselor will be wonderful, a Stephen Minister. (We have them in spades.) There are people who specialize in this sort of thing in the security of a confidential relationship. Connect with someone. Release those emotions.

 

Number 3: Refocus on God. Get fresh awareness of what God might want you to be doing with your life right now. I like what God did with Elijah. God took Elijah outside the cave, and God said, “I’ve got something I want you to see.” 

 

It was evidently quite a display. It was amazing. God said:

 

 

Then a great and a powerful wind tore the mountain apart, shattered rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there came a gentle whisper, and Elijah heard. 

 

Earthquakes, winds, fires, rocks shattering. God is not in any of that big stuff, but God spoke. God connected. God communicated in a whisper just to remind Elijah, in his real time of being down, God was with him. 

 

Rest your body. Release your frustrations. Refocus on God.

 

Number 4: Recommit your life. Recommit your life, not just to anything. Recommit your life to God’s purpose for your life. Let God give you a new purpose, a new job, a new career, a new project, a new lease on your relationships, a new something. Let God do that. 

 

First Kings 19:15 says, “The Lord said to Elijah, ‘Go back the way you came, and go back to work, Elijah. Go back to the city. Go back. Anoint this person king. Anoint this person in charge. Do go; go do. You’ve got a project.’”  

 

You see? God gave Elijah a job, a project. Folks, the quickest way for you, or someone you love, to get rid of those blahs is to give yourself away. Get involved in the needs of other people. 

 

Jesus said, “If you want to find your life, you are going to have to lose it.” 

 

I think that is what he meant. You have to break that cycle of self-pity, and naval gazing, and ask God to let God give you a new project, a new job that helps other people. When you give yourself to the things that God wants for you, not what you want, God begins to give back to you. 

 

Do you see how that works? Things start to change. The lights start to come back on. The energy, and the balance, and the decisiveness start to return. The doom and gloom begin to fade into the background. The world you thought was falling apart and going to hell in a hand basket, all of a sudden starts to look a little different. Life starts to be good again. Not perfect, but good, because God is good. 

 

God has a purpose for your life, and you fulfilling that purpose, not just any purpose, but God’s purpose for you is going to make all the difference in your world. When it makes a difference in your world, it is going to make a difference in God’s world.

 

And all the people say… “Amen.”

 

 

 

We come to you asking that you release us from the melancholy. Lift us from our lukewarm standings and ignite us with your love. Help us to hear you say, “Give into rest, release the worries of your mind, refocus on the greater purposes, and recommit your hearts to me.” Amen.