Mathew 14:13-14
In life we sometimes face situations that completely demolish our hearts. It is in these times that the enemy often comes in and tries to lead us astray. Whether it be in an area of sin in our lives that we use as self medication. (What?? I don't use sin as a means of self medication.) Well, that is a topic to discuss on a another occasion; but just let me say, that most of us use sin as self medication. I would dare to say that most of the sins that so easily beset us in our lives can be attributed to self medication. If not to sin he will try to bring us to a place of discouragement. In either case most of us usually become so self absorbed that we can not see past our own hurt and grief. I am no different then any other person in this life and when I went through my divorce I fell into a depression that I never thought I would recover from. During this period in my life I had many friends give me many tidbits of advice on how to drag myself out. I even had one, cough Doug, tell me he would shoot himself in the head if he were me. He was, of course, joking...well at least I think. In any case, most of the advice I was given was good, but in the end I was still in an out of control spiral that I could not recover from.
One in particularly hard day I was praying and God brought me back to a message my dad preached when I was at bible college. It was a message on compassion. He taught about how after John the Baptist had been beheaded by Herrod that Jesus had gone out into the wilderness to be alone so he could morn. Now John was not only his cousin, but he was the only other person in the world who knew exactly who Jesus was; and, in all the time John had been in prison Jesus was unable to go visit him. In fact, John had even sent Him a letter asking him if he really was the Christ. Jesus responded but was still unable to come to him. Soon after John was killed and Jesus had retreated to an isolated place to be alone and morn. Of course, being who He was, when the multitudes heard He was there they all trekked out into the wilderness to find him; and of course, find Him they did. When Jesus heard them He came out of his place of isolation and did something extraordinary. Instead if loosing His temper with them by sending them all away he rather chose a different path. The bible says in Matthew 14 that He was moved by compassion and healed all who were sick. That in itself is amazing; but Jesus does one better, and He miraculously feeds the multitude with just five loaves of bread and two fish.
Now we all know, if this had been us that we would have either not come out at all or we would have completely lost it and probably shot at least half of the people before they had a chance to flee in terror. Even though my track record in handling such things had not been, shall we say, kosher up to this point; God did however, show me something in this scripture passage I had not truly seen before. It was a key that I could use to unlock my own seemingly hopeless situation. It is this key that ultimately was the turning point in my recovery. The key He showed me-drum roll please-was simply compassion. What, you mean it wasn't time heals all wounds; because, we all know that works right? (I hope the sarcasm came through the computer screen there.) No my friends, it was not sit around and wait for God to miraculously heal me from the inside out. The truth is, He was already doing that and I still could not see past my pain. What He showed me here was very simple and yet profound. What He showed me was that I needed to get my eyes off of myself and on to those who were around me; and when I did, my whole world changed in a flash.
When I for the first time in years really looked around I saw people. Thousands of people who were hurting just as badly as I was. I saw people who were on the verge of suicide. I saw people who were so bound up that they were in mental hospitals. I saw friends and family who were hurting and being beaten by the enemy. In that moment something clicked inside me and I grew angry. Not angry at God or at my situation as I had been before; but rather, angry for the people I saw around me. I was moved with compassion. It hit me then and I realized what Jesus had been doing in the moment after John had been killed. He was not allowing Himself to stay in his hurt and grief; but instead He allowed His grief to drive Him to truly see the plight of the people around Him and it move Him into action. You see, this is what I needed to do as well; and as soon I did my world changed. I was no longer a failed destroyed mess but I became something else. I became the person that my friends now refer to as Captain America. I became more like Jesus that day then I had ever been before. I became a hero; because after all, Jesus is and still is a hero. He is the savior of all, and we were created in His image; so by divine design, we were fashioned to be heroes as well. This is why the enemy goes through so much trouble to try and keep us so focused on ourselves and our own circumstances.
You see, the key to finally getting out of depression and hurt is not just time or healing; but, it is turning outward and choosing to pray and fight for others. After all, the bible says in Isaiah 58:8 that God is our rearguard; if this is the case, as my dad often says, then when we turn around away from our problems and start seeing others instead we put our problems in the best place for God to deal with them. To be honest, if we want to be like God then this is the way we should live in every area of our lives. The bible talks extensively about living our lives for others and not ourselves. The bible says that we should aspire to be fathers in the faith. Since I had great parents and I hope I am a great father I know full well that the job of a father is to sacrifice for his children. Fathers are always the ones who are willing to put others before themselves. True fathers are the ones who are giving their lives so others can succeed. So you see folks, the key to freedom from pain and depression and life in general is looking outward instead of inward. Now, go be heroes and fathers. Go find someone today who you can fight for and invest your life into; and I promise you, you will certainly change and so will your world. For me, I am already picking up the phone to call Bucky and the Twins Hawk and Dove. Excelsior!
Listening to
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