No Depression?

I am a fan of the Coen brothers.

The language is a little
salty for a church
recommendation.

Joel and Ethan Coen have made some of my favorite movies including Raising Arizona, Fargo, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?  They also did a pretty good job remaking True Grit a few years ago - not an easy thing to do.

I was looking forward to seeing Inside Llewyn Davis which is their latest production to hit the screens.  While it was interesting, it will not be included in their best.  The main title character is a folk singer in 1961 before folk music really took off a few years later.  The movie follows Davis through an unsuccessful life and seems fairly miserable as we see him fail at his relationships as well as his career.

Ever make one bad decision after another?

Maybe even worse, sometimes it just seems we're not getting the breaks we need to make it.

This sense of being on a bad roll can move us into a depression and we may even self-destruct.  This seems to be what's going on with Llewyn Davis in the film.

What do we do with depression and what does God have to do with it?

Sometimes we may seem like failures at our spiritual lives as well because if we were more faithful, wouldn't we be over the depression by now?  And so many people suffering from depression also quit attending church.

This week's scripture reading is from the Psalms: 40:1-11 to be exact.  The psalmist seems to be self-declaring steadfastness and faithfulness and is now waiting for God to reciprocate.

"I've been faithful, God.  How about you?"

"How Long, O Lord?" will be my sermon title for Sunday as we look at how we respond to real depression in our lives.