Down Days

Good morning!  Hope you’re having an awesome day!

But of course, we don’t always have awesome days, do we?  Sometimes we don’t even have good days.  Sometimes we have average days.  And sometimes we have days that are just plain lousy.  That can be for lots of reasons.  Maybe we’re tired or don’t feel well.  Maybe we had something bad happen to us or to a loved one.  There can be lots of reasons why we don’t have a very good day.

Or, there can be no reason.  That’s the toughest one, really.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s no fun to get sick or to have bad things happen.  But at least then we know why we feel the way we feel.  Maybe we can even do something about it.  But when we’re down for no reason--well, that’s a tough one to deal with.  If we don’t know why we feel the way we feel, it’s pretty hard to do anything about it.

In fact, sometimes, the more we try to do something about it, the worse it gets.  I don’t know of a way to force yourself to feel something you don’t feel.  Usually, when we try, all we do is make ourselves feel guilty about being down.  Adding guilt to our already down feelings is just going to drive us further down.

So what should we do?  Well, first of all, acknowledge that we’re feeling down.  Don’t try to pretend, don’t try to force our way out of it.  Admit it.

Then, tell ourselves that it’s okay.  It’s okay to feel down sometimes.  Even Jesus felt down sometimes.  It’s normal.  It’s natural.  No one feels up all the time.  So we’re down.  It’s all right.  Let yourself feel it.  Sometimes, the only way to get out of a down feeling is to just let yourself feel it for a while.  Don’t pretend you don’t feel it.  Don’t feel guilty about it, either.  As the saying goes, sometimes you just have to feel that way until you don’t feel that way any more.  If it persists too long, of course, you may need to get some help.  But if it’s only for a while, it’s okay.  Feel what you feel.

And don’t be afraid to talk to God about it.  God already knows how we feel, after all.  God knows everything.  And God won’t be mad at you for being down sometimes.  God made us to have emotions, after all.  God created sadness as well as happiness.  God knows that both of those emotions are part of the condition of being human.  So tell God about it.  Give it all to God.  God will understand.  God may even help you get out of it, eventually.

So, I hope you’re having an awesome day.  But if you’re not, it’s okay.  If you’re having a bad day, it’s okay.  If you’re down and you don’t know why, it’s okay.  Feel what you feel.  But tell God about it.  God wants to be there for you.