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For some reason one day about every six weeks I wake up depressed. It’s a weird feeling but a cloud sort of hangs over my head all day.  Usually a combination of stress, and physical weariness.

The truth is we all have days when the drama or issues of life get us down, and of course it’s those days when everything goes wrong (at least it feels that way)

The real struggle on days like this is obeying God since I honestly don’t want to (there’s no motivation), and even if there was motivation I don’t have the strength to obey Him.

The bottom line is I’m drained physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. So of course the goal is to “fill myself back up.”

This is where social-media is dangerous since it allows me to fill up in very selfish ways.

1. By phrasing a Facebook post about being depressed or discouraged so that people will like or comment on it, and I will feel better [1]
2. By using one of my world-famous pity parties to gain the concern of others [2]
3. Or by spending the afternoon communicating with others online about what a terrible day I was having

Let me just be honest and say there was a BIG temptation to go with option 1 since it would almost immediately take away the feeling of depression. But then I stopped and thought about something,

“what if this depression came from God?”

seriously,

What if God is the source of my bad days?

As a Christian I know God is in control of everything that happens in my life, so it’s not as if God turned his back for a moment and after turning back around said “oh no John’s having a bad day!”

Instead God uses bad days for His glory by reminding me I’m broken.

Ever since Genesis chapter three when Adam and Eve sinned we have all been born broken (unable to save ourselves) because of a sin nature, and unable to survive on our own strength. I forget that sometimes…so God in love has to break me [3].

The thing about my brokeness Is I usually want to hide it or take the pain away, but the Lord helped me use it for His Glory with a short video on Facebook Friday afternoon.

It wasn’t about my glory
Or self-pity
Or to make people love me
Instead of it was thankfulness that there was someone stronger than me.

Please understand I’m not saying everyone should upload videos to Facebook when they are having a bad day. Instead I’m encouraging you to embrace your brokenness.

Don’t run from the pain, medicate it [4], or act like it isn’t there.

Don’t immediately start looking for people whose love, acceptance, or pity make you feel better (which is what I usually do). Instead let the pain and suffering point your eyes to God.

I often spend all of my time on those days focusing on the problem or source of my stress, but don’t even think about the purpose that God may have for it (I’m too busy trying to take the pain away).

But it’s as I embrace my brokeness that the Lord helps me understand a deep truth. I can’t do it all alone…and that’s okay…because I don’t have to.

The thing is I’m not created to walk through life in my own strength, I’m created to walk in a relationship with God through Faith in Jesus Christ.

What does this mean?
In Christ I am not broken
In Christ I am whole

Yes there will still be suffering. But on those bad days instead of trying to take care of everything myself I can run to the arms of my loving Heavenly Father who will never be broken.

One of my favorite ministry opportunities in Australia was helping out with a conversational english group at the local library once a week. What made this so much fun (and frightening) is that group included Buddhists, Muslims, Catholics, and individuals who had little interest in God.

The first week they asked why I was there, and responded with looks of confusion when I told them I was a Baptist Minister because they had never met a Missionary before…almost immediately one of them asked “what does that mean?”

In that moment I wanted to share the whole Gospel but didn’t.  Not because I was ashamed of God’s Word, but because going through it all at once would be an overwhelming experience for those who don’t have a foundation of Biblical truth. So instead I took this opportunity and others God gave to clarify what the Gospel taught.

1. There is only one God, and He created us
2. We are broken, and unable to live a Holy life on our own
3. God is Holy (and cannot tolerate sin) so our rebellion separates us from Him
4. Because we are broken, God chose to send His son Jesus to die for our sins
5. In Christ we are no longer broken, and can become Children of God

As I continued to clarify these and other truths they started coming to me with questions about God. Eventually some when bringing their friends would point at me and say “that’s John he is a Baptist Minister!” which for them meant “this guy will answer your questions about God!”

I’ll never forget the Tuesday when one of them asked me, “okay exactly what is the difference between what you believe, and what we believe.” That question was followed by a forty-five minute conversation about our need of a Savior, and the eternal punishment of sin.

I wish I could tell you they accepted Christ, but unfortunately that isn’t true. It’s my belief though that moment would have never taken place if they hadn’t understood clearly the foundational truths of Scripture.

Social-Media in my opinion can be referred to as a mission-field since countless people use it everyday to find their identity or purpose in life (I find myself doing this sometimes). But we must be careful in how this digital mission-field is approached

Yesterday I wrote a post about the danger of debating political or spiritual issues online [1]. While in most cases the Christian view is defended, our mind is focused on “proving the other person wrong or ourselves right” so we aren’t actually paying attention to what they are saying.

This can break down into the trading of verbal punches or attacks to the point where we aren’t even talking about the original subject matter anymore. The real problem with this is it’s ineffective…they aren’t going to change our mind, and we won’t change theirs (since we aren’t really listening anyways).

That’s why the Lord is helping me focus less on how broken (corrupt) the world is, and how incredible the Gospel is.

See I could have pointed out the brokeness of all those English students that first day, but instead chose to start clarifying exactly what the Gospel was.

Because deep down inside they knew that they were broken.

They knew that life shouldn’t work this way

They knew that there had to be something more

Today we are still living in a society that knows it’s broken (unable to save themselves), and spends almost every day trying to cover up that brokenness, or fill it with something that takes away their pain. So for me to yell and scream at that person “your broken!” isn’t going to make much of a difference.

They need to know the rest of the story…
God doesn’t want you to be broken…
His son died on a cross so you wouldn’t have to be…
You can be whole

Does this mean we refuse to the confront the sins of our culture?  Of course not!  But in the end it’s better to let the Holy Spirit use God’s Word to convict hearts instead of our own arguments.