When You’re Down and Troubled and Need Some Love and Care!

Have you heard the Carol King song, ‘You’ve Got a Friend’?

When you’re down and troubled

And you need some love and care

And nothing, nothing is going right

Is this where you are? You’re down, you’re troubled and you don’t know why. Medical issues have been ruled out, your family life is good, work is satisfying, yet you’re down!

You’re simply dissatisfied with life, although you have no reason to feel this way.

You close your eyes, and hope for something different. Yet, you know the newness of changed situations will only give a temporary reprieve from the feelings of sadness and discontent you know. You’re disappointed with life, and you don’t know why. Carol King’s song continues:

Close your eyes and think of me And soon I will be there To brighten up even your darkest night You just call out my name And you know wherever I am I'll come running, to see you again

Now, if only that were true. That we could close our eyes and think of someone and all our problems would be lifted, they’d be gone, and everything would be okay. That’s quite a responsibility to place on another. And we know that in time they may fail us, they are not eternal, so they truly cannot always be there for us.

If this is true, and it is, then why do we have this longing for something good to happen, for something more, an ongoing expectation of things to come, an inbound hope for something better.

Why do we have an expectation of something as though we are not quite complete, that something vital is missing from our lives? Consider the possibility that we were created for more, for some kind of relationship that is beyond ourselves, and the companions we have. That our feelings of being down and our heart sentiment of being troubled is meant to cause us to seek out the answers to our forlorn state.

This world can never satisfy us. It can never complete us.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God ‘has put eternity into man’s heart’. Do you think your feelings of being down and troubled are nothing more than a longing to find meaning, to give value to your existence? Instead, is it not a calling borne through a deep longing to know God, to know more about Him, and to find the answers from Him?

Why am I so sad? Why am I so troubled? I will put my hope in God … my savior and my God. (Psalm 42:5,11; 43:5)

What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse (Romans 1:19-20).

#down #love #care