With Daylight Savings comes a variety of changes, not just those on the hands of a clock.  We “fell backwards” this past weekend, and in doing so, there is less light for us to enjoy in the evening.  It feels like we’re purged into total darkness as if it were the midnight hour, and yet it is only 6:00 p.m.

Sadness falls upon us.

There is a direct correlation in sadness that worsens as Winter approaches.  Depression sets in if we don’t fight it with all of our might.  Here in the south our Winters are mild, which I am truly thankful for.  I could not imagine losing daylight so early in the evening and being surrounded by freezing temperatures with snow on the ground.  I imagine it’s exciting your first Winter as snow begins to fall, but shoveling snow would add to the dread as you start your day bundled up to face the chore at hand.  Here in the south, we are delighted with a light dusting of snow, and everyone hurries to the store for milk and bread.  It is short lived, and then we return to mild temperatures yet again.

People don’t often speak of things that are troubling them.  Maybe they have been betrayed in the past or something they told someone was later used against them so they keep to themselves now to avoid anything of the sort happening again.  We never truly know the depths of someone’s hurt and pain.  We know not what they keep hidden in their heart.

Right now a man lays near death struggling to breathe as his soon-to-be widow puts on a brave face in front of others.  She tries hard to be strong, yet she, too, is barely holding on with the help of anti depressants and family that takes turns sitting with her in the final days.  We look on offering prayer and asking God to comfort as only He can at a time like this.

A friend’s message appears, and she is obviously consumed with the stress she has been under for so long.  Her husband, a double transplant patient, returns to the hospital facing yet another surgery.  She cries out, begging for assistance from someone, anyone who might be able to join her in prayer and relieve her worried mind.

We face our own mortality with medical tests and procedures.  We pray for good results and hope for the best claiming faith over fear.  Sometimes that fear does a number on us, and we withdraw because of the unknown or we lash out because we’re scared of what’s to come.  Feelings aren’t right or wrong, they just are … and the way we cope with things will vary from the next person.  Maybe that’s all we know and are struggling although those words never pass through our lips. This was true once again in my own life last week as I faced what is usually a routine imaging procedure, yet each time I walk through the hospital doors I’m reminded of my family’s medical history and how it could affect me in the same way.  I pray against it, and it feels as if I’m on pins and needles with the mental and emotional anguish until the results come in.  Whew.  Relief washes over me, and my nerves which felt as if they were once residing on the outside of my body can now sink back inside my skin as the perceived threat has passed for the moment.

What is one truly to do amidst the seasons of change?  Pray and hope for the best?  Pray and give it over to God only to take it back from Him moments later to worry over it some more?  That’s what we do as emotional beings.  We try hard, but we fall short.  We’re reminded that worrying is a sin, but alas we’re human.

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth!

These are more than mere words sang by Casting Crowns or quoted from the Bible.  It’s TRUTH!

We can not do a single thing on our own in this life.  We’re judged, ridiculed for the way we handle situations or stressors, and yet we’re doing the best that we can in that moment.  It’s when we pray and reach out, hearts so overloaded with despair at times, knowing He will cradle us in His arms.  He will see us through every storm in life.  The raging storms of life threaten to take us to the depths of the ocean where we feel like we will surely drown on the ocean’s floor.  But God lifts us out of the sea of chaos, with cares that once consumed us, and offers His strong arms as we cling to Him.

The way, the Truth, and the Life!