When you are feeling low...

and trust me, it will come.  I've gone through many of those phases this past year, what with the masks and the coronavirus, with being isolated.   It's hard.  It is a tough place to be.  For me, when I am in low tides, I want to be alone.  I want people to leave me alone.  I want to wallow in my sorrow.  To  with what is going on, to try and think through what can I do.  And I spend a lot of time praying that God will help me get out of my drop in emotions.

I was reading in my devotional this morning and it just happened to be about low tides.  It made some very interesting points so I am going to share those this morning, because I know that we all go through these at some time or another.  Whether it is relational, or physical, or financial, or emotional - we all go through it at some time.  And most times we try to hide it, and sometimes we are pretty good at it.

There is a song by Peggy Lee that asks the question.... "Is that all..... is that all there is.....?  And I am sure we all ask ourselves that questions many times during our difficult and low times.

When our spirits are high, we are flooded with optimism, hope and expectation.  But when we are feeling low, our jagged barnacles of disappointment, discouragement, and disillusionment are exposed.  We try to hide the melancholy from others beneath a thick coat of public image shined to a high gloss finish with the wax of superficiality and embellished with a religious cliche or two.  But all the while, at the low tide within us, we struggle to maintain an even keel as the rough winds jerk our sails.  Some of our low tides are almost predictable, aren't they?  Many seem to come right after we have a great victory over something.

We get a special reward, and realize the next day it is 'just a piece of paper'.  We buy a new car and, like someone I know recently found out, many things start to go wrong with it until it is beyond our budget to repair.  We get married and the person we were so in love with and held on this high pedestal, has shown their true colors.  The job we longed to get and finally get, just doesn't measure up to what our anticipation was.  So many things can bring us down to the low tide, and we ask the question, "Is that all..... is that all there is...?

I Kings 18 and 19 share the story of a great prophet - Elijah - who had a great victory and beat the prophets of Baal....but then became afraid of Jezebel and ran and hid.  When he cried out to God, it wasn't in spontaneous praise, but because he was over-whelmed with self-pity.

II Corinthians l:8 shares about Paul, that great man of God, who fell into despair, perhaps due to loneliness, weariness, and emotionally drained over all he had gone through.

Even the greatest warrior and King - David.  A dedicated warrior, unmatched for bravery in Israel's ranks, he was forced to flee from King Saul.  Reeling in fear and despair, David even disguised himself as insane before the king of Gath.  The once exalted warrior now scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard.  Read it in I Samuel 21:13.  David was at low tide and all his valor seemed an empty dream.

Low tide....very painful, yet how essential.  Without it, we cannot have high tide.  Without it, we cannot discover how great and dependable our God is.  He surrounds us constantly, and waits for us to spend time with Him.

It isn't Him running to us every time we have a problem.  It is us humbling ourselves to admit that we need a Savior.  We truly are not perfect, nor will we ever be.  We can never hope to be perfect for it won't happen. 

But He is.  And He surrounds you in good times, and in bad times.  He's beside you right now, waiting for you to turn to Him and just tell Him your problems, your confusion on what to do now, where do you go, what do you do, how do do you do it.

We often forget that, because we think we can only find God in church.  But that's not true.  He lives inside us, and He lives beside us.   He's waiting.  Open your heart, and just tell Him what's going on and ask for His guidance and direction. 

When it seems like that's all there is, remember all you have in Him.

Blessings!