John Gunter

Thoughts on Life and Living

Further thoughts on life and depression – Psalm 13

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Picture by Monica Skinner. . . not about depression.
This picture has nothing to do with the article, I just think it looks cool (taken by Monica Skinner).

This morning when I was reading the Bible, I came upon this chapter. I wanted to quickly share this Psalm with you.   Psalm 13…

1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

In light of my last post on some of my thoughts on the death of Junior Seau (click here to read), this Psalm stuck out to me this morning.  It really is a great look into the matter of struggle and depression.

King David wrote this Psalm.  One of the many aspects of the Bible that I deeply appreciate is the fact that it is painfully honest in its writing.  In this Psalm, David is clearly depressed.  He feels abandoned by God and personally lost.  The Lord is distant and David’s earthly enemies are close.  He is scared for both his earthy life and his eternal soul.  Ever been there? I have.

What I noticed this morning, though, is the abrupt shift in David’s tone towards the end of the Psalm.  [Read more…]

Thoughts on life in the midst of a tragic death

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Junior_Seau_624700_620x350
(Getty Images/Stephen Dunn)

Take me back 15 years ago.  I think if there was anyone whom I would have switched lives with, it would have been Junior Seau.  He was at the top of his game in football and seemingly, in life.  He played the coolest position in football and he was the best at it.  Junior loved the game and it showed.  He had fun.  Men rallied around him.  He made massive amounts of money for playing a game most of us would gladly play for free.

Junior was still playing as of January 2010.  Just over two years ago.  This week Junior Seau quite unexpectedly committed suicide.  He has been on my mind a good bit these past few days.

Thinking about Junior Seau as of one week ago, he still appeared to have it all.  At 43 years old, he was still young enough to do everything you would want to in life, save play professional football.  He had more than enough money to live comfortably for the remainder of his life.  Junior was a hero in his communities of both San Diego (where he grew up and played) and within the Samoan-Americans.  He had a family that loved him and a stellar name that would follow him for the rest of his life.  A week ago today, you would have thought that Junior was set up well to live a tremendous life for the next 40 years.

It is impossible to ever make sense of a tragedy of this level, so I will not try to here.  However, I do think there are principles that you can draw upon from this horrible event.

First, you never know what is going on inside the minds and hearts of other people.  We all have our secrete lives.  We all have our thoughts that we would be ashamed of if someone else knew [Read more…]

To whom shall we go?

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return-prodigal-son
Rembrandt’s “The Prodigal Son”

This may surprise you, but one of my favorite passages in the Bible is John 6:68-69.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

I have come back to this section of the Bible countless times during periods of struggle. Life throws many temptations and trials at us. Whether it is obvious, overt sin, such as sexual indiscretion or something much more subtle, like greed, temptations abound. Many times, I find that temptations can then make it as far as becoming a way of thinking for me. This is when it gets dangerous. “I would be happier if I followed a life driven by financial gain.” “I would be happier if I just married this girl, instead of God’s choice for me.” “I would be happier if I were doing a different profession.”

On my worst days, I’m tempted to even doubt the goodness, care, power, and love of my God, Christ Jesus. This is generally following times of extreme heartache, loneliness, disappointment, or loss.

Whether it’s precipitated by moral failure, personal loss, or challenges to my faith in Christ and the Bible, I love this passage (John 6:68-69) in illustrating this point. I love the [Read more…]

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