By Karen Y. Stevens

 

I have been speaking to a lot of people lately, and all of them seem to be suffering thru some sort of sadness.

I hate to use the word depression, but they seem not to be able to explain the sadness, myself included.

First, we must remind ourselves, that no one is perfectly happy in this world. Rich and poor have problems.

My 98-year-old Father in Law use to live with us, until he passed away two years ago. He was such a praying man. We don’t know what covering we have with praying Elders until they are no longer with us. We take those blessings and success for granted, and do not realize why they are coming our way, when we are on the receiving end.

God still is showering blessings on my family, but it’s noticeable different.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 states “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”

I have stated many times that we are all about “what can life do for me?”

I think this is one of the roots to our sadness. Everything is about “where can I go, and see what someone else hasn’t seen?” “Where can I volunteer to get the most notoriety?” “I need to make someone envious of my life, so I can feel good about myself.”

These questions, or something similar might be subconscious, but still there. Everything in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 suggest selfishness. Selfishness causes sadness, because we can never be happy trying to obtain everything that we want.

They tell alcoholics that the first step is admitting you have a problem.

Our selfishness is the same.

We first must admit that we are selfish in order to change.

I understand now why older people don’t buy new cloths, or new things. They are the ones that have arrived at the correct thought process – It doesn’t matter! Who cares if you have the latest and greatest item. No one will remember if you had that item or not.

I do not remember what my friends wore to a party, but I do remember their kindness. Some of my friends have nice houses, but I can’t remember the color of their granite, or if it is designer or not. Having nice things is good, but we need to reach out to other people during our sadness; and give to them out of our need.

Only then, can we achieve peace and moments of happiness. Remember, God did not put us here for our pleasure, but His.

Karen Y. Stevens is founder of Orange County Christian Writers Guild