What do you do when you encounter a Blue Monday? Brad reflects on days past and gives us insight on how to deal with rainy days.
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Blue Monday
A spirit of “melancholy” is depicted in the Carpenters song “rainy days and Monday’s”. The chorus line says, “Rainy days and Monday’s always get me down”. The unofficial “saddest” or most depressing day of the year is given to the third Monday in January. A mix of winter blues, holiday withdrawal, and billing cycle due dates seem to culminate into what is known as “Blue Monday”.
Blue Monday in recent years may be gaining some recognition, but the month of September for many is and has also been equated with a sense of melancholy. It’s the time when we board our little ones (maybe for the first time) onto big yellow school buses and send them off onto new life adventures. or move our sons and daughters into their new apartment or dorm room. In September, Were also sensing a change in the air. The night temperatures are cooling up, and the sun is setting earlier each evening. For gardeners, the vegetable stocks are dying off, and tomatoes and cucumbers are beginning to wilt on the vines. It’s the passing of the bright and busy days of summer, and a slight foreboding as we transition into the darker, slower days of autumn.
Reflections
I like to think that I’m a positive person. I feel blessed immensely by my lord, and I try to see the cup as always being half full. Typically rainy days and Monday’s don’t get me down. But, this particular rainy September Monday seems to be tugging at my heartstrings. Our house is one of those quieted now with the move of our daughter, our last child at home, into her own apartment.
As I sip my coffee in my usual chair by our kitchen window, I can’t help but reflect on the changes that life brings, and the effects on our small community. My aunt’s house, just 50 yards or so away, in view from my window… now sits empty. Her recent passing from a short illness still brings a tear to many eyes. The next house in view, also empty from the toll of age and time.
I can’t help but reflect on days past, when this community that I’ve called home for most of my 50+ years, was brimming with noise from busy families with children and animals and construction and life. I can count over 70 children that would have once called this 2 mile stretch of road, home. Now, I can count with just thumbs and fingers, the few little ones who are scattered sparingly across the bumpy stretch of community. Other homes are empty or reduced to a single resident, well on in years. Several homes that were once occupied by vibrant neighbours are now owned by transient folk that one seldom sees…slim chance of borrowing that hammer, or a random cup of sugar.
My thoughts turn to the millions displaced in Houston, the Caribbean Islands, and Florida, as a result of the devastation from two massive hurricanes. How their lives will change. Some will grieve for lives lost in these disasters, and others for homes, properties and their communities.
The sense of melancholy that I’m feeling this particular Monday morning surely will be multiplied many times over by those who have lost so much.
What To Do When You Encounter A Blue Monday
As I reflect; as I allow myself to be wistful, I feel his still small voice ministering to my soul. Our God, if we let him, uses the quiet, reflective, bittersweet moments to bring about the remembrance that he is with us always. His light shines brightest in the darkest moments, and we can see how goodness and blessing are manifest in the most difficult of times. The Bible tells us we are sojourners here. Heaven is our true home. As we see life around us change, we can take great comfort in the thought that God does not change. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
Solomon was vexed in his spirit much of the time, which is reflective in his writings, as he contemplated the passing of this life and all things…people and possessions…that are in it.
In the gospels, Jesus delivers his sermon from the mount in what is termed the “beatitudes”. Jesus loving words remind us of just how much Our Heavenly Father bears the burden not just for our sins, but also shares in our effectual sorrows of everyday life.
Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, those that mourn, those that suffer persecution.” He reminds us that heavy hearts here, will give way to comfort and rejoicing, exhorting us to take comfort …. as “our reward is in heaven.”
In John 11:35, we’re told that Jesus wept, at the sight of the grieving hearts, the poor in spirit who lamented the death of their dear Lazarus. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever show. It truly does overwhelm, when we stop to think that the God of all creation, knows us personally, and intimately far more than we can imagine. His love is there to sustain us through the melancholy, even to the depths of emotional despair.
Life here is forever changing. Things that once were may fade, be altered or disappear altogether. It was so aptly written in the old hymn, Abide With Me… “change and decay are all around I see”.
But when we encounter a “Blue Monday”, or a rainy day, or the all-out flood waters of life, let’s sit down with God, and spend some quiet time with our Father. For “the peace of God which passes all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Brad Hewey
Brad offers up practical, scriptural advice from a perspective borne out of everyday life encounters. As we live and move and have our being…it’s the individual life lessons that most often present the greatest challenges, but can yield the richest blessings. We’ve all, as Christians had those faith-affirming moments, where we’ve had an overwhelming sense of God’s spirit, or his very presence “at a particular but, maybe random time”.
Brad was born and still resides in a small community in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, where he and his wife Karen raised their 3 children. Brad & Karen fellowship at the Greenland Bible Chapel, where Brad serves as an elder.
Brad loves meeting and engaging with people. His background in sales has provided opportunities to travel throughout the US and Canada, networking with people from all walks of life. Brad is a singer/songwriter and has recorded 3 Christian albums. Songs from his “Brighter Day” release, have aired on Christian Radio stations across Canada and two of Brad’s albums are on HopeStreamRadio’s playlist.
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