Low Moods

Where do low moods originate? It seems as though they come upon us suddenly and often without much warning.

In my experience, the low moods seem to begin with an event that is the impetus for what follows; that event starts slowly and then builds to the point where one day the low mood comes, falls over us, and often seems to blindside us. That event that begins the process most likely is something we didn't expect or it's a misstep we took somewhere leading up to that day of despair/low moods. The initial event could be something sinful we did, or was done to us, or it could just be a part of life for which we were unprepared. We then move from that one event, often unaware of the valley it will inevitably lead us to, and compound it with daily life; those daily issues and otherwise normally occurring moments of life that, for whatever reason, we now take more to heart as it piles on that event. All this until, one day, life seemingly all comes crashing down upon us, throwing us for a loop, wrecking our day(s) and causing us to question ourselves and/or our approach to life. This, in my observation and experience, is how low moods begin. This is how we get to those moments in our lives where our thoughts tend to get irrational, or at least more sensitive to our surroundings, and we hit a roadblock to daily living. This is where we have to stop, take a breath, and consider our next move.

Yet, there is another side to this which leads us to the same place from a different direction. It's those moments in life where we do not stumble and fall, leading us to low moments; no, rather it's those times where we are at our best, we win great victories, we're on top of the world. We're at the pinnacle of life where we have just defeated satan, overcome some great obstacle, or served God faithfully and extremely well. We do all this, only to have our legs cut out from under us; we are hit hard with low moments, after just having a moment(s) when we feel at our best. The end is the same, low times come, but these times seem to be more surprising to us. All we have to do is look to Elijah for an example of this (1Kgs.18-19). Jezebel and Ahab sought Elijah's life time and again, they hated the prophet, yet it didn't stop him before; yet, after this great victory for the Lord in 1 Kings 18, Jezebel is furious and seeks to take his life yet again and Elijah becomes depressed. But what happens? Does Elijah stay down, does he quit? No, instead God lifts him back up and sets him to work; Elijah is renewed and he gets busy about the Lord's business again. Yet what we learn here is when he should have been at his best, immediately after a great victory, he falls. Is it any different for you or me? The end result should be the same, we should look to the Lord and His ways to lift us up rather than looking to man and his ways; but is that what we do?

Have you ever had a moment like any, or all, of these? How often do we fall down and fail to rise for a period of time; we stumble, lose our footing, and lay sprawled across the ground that is our life? We lose our way, lose our fight, lose our motivation to carry on. Our low moods take over our daily life, we allow it to rule over us and be the force behind our action or inaction through those dark days. We allow the events of our life to rule over us, rather than we ruling over our lives.

So, what are we to do? Much of life is about finding solutions, isn't it? Here's one way that works:

While low moods are certainly not the pinnacle of happiness, they can serve a purpose and can be used to help "right the ship" in our lives if we will but use them in the proper manner. The devil would love for these times in our lives, which we all will experience at some point, to derail us and keep us from serving our Lord, but we can't allow him to get the better of us. Instead, we can use these times to better ourselves. How? Consider what these times in our lives do for us. These times, low moments, cause us to slow down; we move through life sometimes at such a hurried and feverish pace; low moments serve to make us stop and walk a little slower. We move so fast, sometimes, that we fail to thoroughly do anything all the way, which results in half-measures and half-actions; we leave things undone rather than finish them (at least this is the case with me). We leave doors open we should close, we let temptation linger rather than put it away from us, we let opportunities to serve go by when we should rather slow down and take the time to give our attention to others. We move so fast, thinking we're really living our lives, when what we're really doing is just hastening our death with little to show for our life. We move so fast that we miss our lives passing through our hands, all because we're too busy or too hurried to slow down enough to actually live.

These low times often force us to think soberly over what led up to this moment, figure out what may have occurred to put us on this path, and then we develop plans and solutions to safeguard us for next time. There is a particular temptation, during these low times, to blameshift and point the finger; yet, we cannot allow ourselves to sink into that deep pit of utter ridiculous behavior, we must rise above that attitude.

When we're down, the only logical place to look is up. We look to our Lord for the answers. We evaluate our lives, consider what we must do to get back up, and we get up and get back in the fight. Don't let low moments keep you down, use them to make you a better, stronger, and more determined soldier of the Lord. The ups and downs of life are a given, what we do with them when that time comes is up to us; may we use the wisdom of God to navigate the troubled waters of life when they are stirred.