“Following God, The Mid-East and Depression”

“Visiting Israel changed my life but not in the way you think,” a retiring professor said at a ceremony honoring his years of service. “Because of terrorist threats, there were very few tourists in the area, so I found myself virtually alone on a bus in Jerusalem with a young Palestinian tour guide.”

“Obviously bitter, the guide decided to unload all of his people’s problems on me. At one point the bus turned down a small side street, he pointed and said, ‘that home once belonged to my family. We lived there for many years, until the Jews came. We were thrown out and put into a refugee camp. Promises of compensation never materialized. Our family received nothing.’”

“As the tour continued our guide pointed to other houses and business once occupied by Palestinians, now owned and operated by Jews. ‘They took our land, our homes, our businesses and even our self-respect. We have been stripped of everything and no one seems to care.’”

“For the first time,” the retiring professor said, “I began to realize that the Jews were not the only ones being oppressed. The Palestinian people have legitimate problems of their own that are crying for recognition. As a university professor, I was in a position of influence. Maybe God was calling me for such a time as this.”

“So, I have spent the last sixteen years writing letters and articles explaining the plight of the Palestinian people and urging the necessity of looking at both sides of this difficult situation.”

After a long pause, the professor continued, “I must confess that in this task, I have failed completely. I worked hard to deal with a difficult worldwide problem and accomplished nothing. I believe we are all called as Christians for a special task and in that task we will usually be unsuccessful, therefore, we will become depressed and depression is the darkness that often accompanies serving God.”

The retiring professor was depressed and by the time he finished speaking, we were depressed. But the amazing part is that he was right… sort of. We likely will not take part in resolving problems between the Jews and the Arabs or any other global events. When we die the world will probably be the same dangerous place it is right now. If you think about it, a little depression seems warranted.

Maybe it’s best to not think about it. We should simply do our work, raise our family, watch the news, take our vacations, enjoy a few pleasures and not take any of this other stuff too seriously. Who am I to think that I can actually impact society? After all, how much can one person or one organization do?

“The world is so big and I am so small. What can I possibly accomplish as a follower of God? Are we called by God for a mission… only to fail?”

Are you getting depressed yet? You are not alone. For generations, others have asked the same question. “What can I do?” 1 John is a beautiful letter in the Bible written for a church once filled to overflowing with the enthusiasm of serving Jesus Christ but now becoming discouraged and beginning to ask serious questions about their ultimate mission and even about the identity of God.

“The one who existed from the beginning is the one we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is Jesus Christ, the Word of life. This one who is life from God was shown to us and we have seen him.” (1 John 1:1-2)

This is so important! John, the letter writer, proclaims that God is alive and extraordinarily aware of what is happening in the world and with His church. How does he know? “We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands.”  In other words, if God is alive and still in control then our lives have purpose and meaning. We really are called by God for a mission… if only we truly knew and understood what that mission was? There is an answer from 1 John but we must go to another page.