DEPRESSION? RECESSION?

When many of us hear the word “depression” our minds go back to a time in the 1930’s when the world experienced what they labeled as “The Great Depression.”  It was a dismal time.  A time when the world economy looked rather hopeless.  There was mass unemployment and widespread poverty as the results.

Currently because of our declining economy we are hearing the word “Recession” more often than not.  Recession, then Depression.  What’s the difference you are asking?  TIME!  A “Recession” although just a devastating as the “Depression” last for a shorter period of time. WOW!  Good to hear that huh?

Regardless of what the time limit, either one can leave a trail of broken hearts, homes, spirits, and hope.

I’m not trying to write a history lesson, so I don’t know how many Recessions or Depressions we have had.  One thing I do know there have been far too many.  Which lets me know we can’t put all of our eggs in one basket and hand them over to some mortal man to take care of them.

I went a little further and looked up the key word for depression, found out it was depressed…a state of unhappiness and hopelessness, then on to recess…meaning to recede…the act of going back or becoming more distant.

Now here comes the dangerous part, I started thinking.

If we can’t depend on our finances, because we know now that the bank we trust to keep our “fortunes” are subject to close without any notification, leaving you and I a note on the front door to call some 800 number. When we reach someone on the 800 number we find out that we can only get a percentage of our money.  We find ourselves with a pink slip in our hands, sometimes with little less than a week to prepare for being without a job, retirement, and insurance benefits.  When the numbness wears off, we painfully console ourselves with the thought of drawing our unemployment, knowing that the amount you draw is not going to cover the mortgage payment if we save all month.  While you are watching the news with your new found leisure time you are informed that your state’s unemployment fund is at the bottom of the barrel and if the state can’t borrow from the government then you won’t even have the unemployment check which you have contributed to for over twenty years.  Suddenly fear and hopelessness sinks in and the tears begin to fall.  All the trust we have placed in the system has left us in a state of unhappiness and hopelessness.  We look for the those who made promises to us; that there would never be anything to worry about because their company, benefits and programs were untouchable.  Now that the day of reckoning has come we find them receding going back on their word and distancing themselves from us.

Saying all that, I come to this.  There is a person whose Love will never leave us in a state of Depression and whose love will never recede.  That person is  God.  He cares deeply for each one of us.  His love is not conditional.  We love based on feelings and emotions that can changed from one minute to the next.  With man, we love “because.”  Because someone is cute, because they are funny, because they take good care of us,  because they are rich, because they are smart, because of their talent, because they are tall or short and it goes on.  If you will be honest you know us humans will fall in love with a “because” in a New York minute.   Then when that “because” causes depression and or starts to recede.  It’s on to another.

Not with God.  He doesn’t care what we look like, how tall we are, how rich, how poor, about our stinky dispositions, whether we have a degree or not.  He loves us because we are His children.  John 3:16..”For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

We can accept or reject God’s love.  We are the one’s who bring depression upon ourselves when we take a recess from God.  He has no problem in forgiving a repentant sinner and given them another chance.

Luke 15:4-7.…What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 5-and when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing, 6-and when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

For true love, agape love, selfless love that never depresses or recedes there’s only one place to look and that’s to God.

Sure, some will disagree and say they have a husband, wife, mother, father  or friend that loves them unconditionally and I do believe that there are some who love almost as unconditionally as God, but when in doubt.  Just read this scripture to them.  St. John 15:13...Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.

Don’t feel hard toward them if they can’t commit to saying this with conviction after all there is only one God.