When the reality doesn't match the dream ~ then what?

When the reality doesn't match the dream, then what? Where do we turn to escape the icy grip of depression? Psychologists say that depression is one of the most common ailments affecting the emotional well being of human beings. During the Christmas season, the heartaches of depression stab at the soul with deeper intensity as media bombards us with Norman Rockwell glimpses of the "perfect" family holiday. But for many people, the reality just doesn't meet the dream. What help is available to those who struggle with thoughts of suicide during this season?

When you are feeling lonely or depressed, there is no greater place to turn than to the God of all creation. God created you for a divine purpose. Everything you are going through is preparing and equipping you for that unique purpose for which you were created.

The best antidote for depression is reading and meditating on the goodness of God. If anything in all the world has the ability to help you and to save you; it is God; the very God that created the world.

The writer of Psalm 42 was discouraged and wrote this Psalm as a divine antidepressant. Reading, meditating, praying, and journaling God's Word are divine antidepressants. They are gifts of medicine for your broken heart from the hand of a loving God who cares deeply for you and your condition.

Psalm 42 ~ NIV

1 "As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.
5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and
6 my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?"
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God."

In times of joy, and in times of sorrow it is my prayer that all of mankind would turn their hearts to the God of all creation. That we would consider HIM and allow him to wash over and through us in powerful and transforming ways. And in so doing we would be led to a deeper awareness, appreciation, and manifestation of the divine purpose of our existence in this world. It is my prayer that we would never once think we were a mistake, but we would know to the depths of our beings that we are part of a plan that far transcends the mind of man, regardless of how high our IQ might be. (Yes, Joe this is for you, too! ... My dear and compassionate friend of many years, Harvard graduate, Doctor of Psychology, man of amazingly high IQ, irreverent unbeliever, confidant, best friend, and former lover.) This is for you and for all of us throughout this world who find the reality doesn't match the dream. There is something far better, perhaps
it can not be seen and yet the words appear on dollar bills throughout this country... the immortal words... IN GOD WE TRUST!

copyright (c) Kathi Dameron December 16, 2005