By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
Any Boomers or Gen X’ers reading this Ponderings remember The Carpenters? When I first started dating my wife in the early 1970s, she introduced me to Richard and Karen Carpenter’s music.
They were her favorite singers, and it didn’t take long for them to convert me into a fan as well. Recently, while I did some yardwork, I listened to music I’d downloaded onto my Amazon Music app.
A Carpenters song, “Rainy Days and Mondays,” started to play. In case you’ve forgotten the lyrics or never heard of The Carpenters before, here are words to the song:
Talkin’ to myself and feelin’ old
Sometimes I’d like to quit, nothin’ ever seems to fit
Hangin’ around
Nothin’ to do but frown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down
What I’ve got, they used to call the blues
Nothin’ is really wrong, feelin’ like I don’t belong
Walkin’ around
some kind of lonely clown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down
Funny, but it seems I always wind up here with you
Nice to know somebody loves me
Funny, but it seems that it’s the only thing to do
Run and find the one who loves me
Maybe you fight with depression like I do. Things get you down in the dumps. I don’t think rainy days or Mondays trigger my depression, but I haven’t tracked it. Interesting the day I heard the song was both a Monday and a rainy day.
If you struggle with depression, you may identify with the line in the song, “Nothin’ is really wrong.” Most of the time there isn’t.
Nothing really triggered it. We just find ourselves sinking into an abyss of emotional darkness, and we don’t know how to pull ourselves out of it.
But there is a way, as The Carpenters confirm: “Funny, but it seems I always wind up here with you.” Who’s your “you”?
More times than not, we wind up with something that only provides a temporary emotional boost at best or escorts us into deeper depression at worst.
Let me be clear: alcohol, drugs, pornography, sex, food, shopping, and a slew of other things we turn to for relief when we’re depressed doesn’t work. Never has.
Never will. Any one of them might cloak our despair for a while, but they’re like a pain shot that wears off after a little while before the pain comes storming back.
The next line clarifies who our “who” must be if we really want relief. “Funny, but it seems that it’s the only thing to do—run and find the one who loves me.”
Jesus loves me. He’s the one to run and find on those occasions. It’s the only thing to do to bring us permanent relief and strength without regret later.
Why do we ignore Jesus’ call and so readily turn to other “solutions”? Jesus invites us to run to him. “Come to me [and no one else], all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest… for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29).
Alcohol, sex, and food won’t do it. Neither will shopping, pornography or food. Only Jesus can lift you out of the pit!
When will we finally let it sink in? When will our first instinct be to “run and find the One who loves me,” and can help me with whatever is troubling me?
O Jesus, let it be soon.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.