I wrote this during the “pandemic” and lost it on my website, but found it today:

A quote from a famous person (and it could fit me too), and a few more.

“My best personality trait is that I think I'm very approachable. And my worst is that I can be moody”

Enrique Iglesias

“I'm as moody and complex and private as anyone I ever knew.”

Ryan O'Neal

“Animals don't lie. Animals don't criticize. If animals have moody days, they handle them better than humans do.”

Betty White

“They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody?”

Princess Diana

Ups and Downs, hills and valleys, we all have them. Some of us to the extreme. Some of us can't help it, something is wrong, but most of the time our mood swings, and our moments of feeling we are at the top or at the bottom of the world are self-inflicted. As one preacher puts it "we can choose to praise or we can choose to pout".

Rather simple but very on-target way to put it don't you think? Remember that song "Don't worry be happy?"

Here's a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note

Don't worry, be happy

In every life, we have some trouble

But when you worry you make it double

Don't worry, be happy

Don't worry, be happy now.

There is a lot of truth in those lyrics.

I have a somewhat arrogant habit of saying I don't believe in seeking happiness, not literally, because the word is based on happenstance or circumstance. I tell myself that our contentment, has to be more than a mood, it has to come from somewhere much deeper. Circumstances change, and if our hearts change, our relationship with God changes to match our present circumstances then where does that leave us? What does it say about us? Are we spiritually strong or weak? Am I saying that we should be "happy" all the time? Absolutely not, but we should know where our strength and our joy come from. It doesn't ultimately come from friends, family or work, or our bank account, or from movies or tv or any of those things. It comes from something solid, eternal, and at times unspeakable, something that we may not even understand.

We all get depressed, at one time or another. Then the WE becomes ME and mine, my feelings, my life, my troubles. But We, God and Me, can get beyond those things that "change our mood" that cause us to be depressed. The Psalmist, David, knew this. He could be sick in his heart, in his spirit but he knew the cure. It didn't come in a bottle (or wineskin), any kind of bottle, or from any person either.

Why did I write this, this morning? I told Diane that I have been waking up the last few months, feeling disturbed and a bit depressed. I bet I am not alone, it has been a rough year for all of us, and for some, it has been devastating, full of loss and pain. Life has been a downer, not happy. Life has been in the valley not on the mountaintop. I understand, I have been there, at the bottom and at the top. But you know what? God is there with us and He says WE can make it through this, you don't have to worry about that.

Don't worry, be at peace, don't pout, praise!

Psalm 43

1 Vindicate me, my God,

and plead my cause

against an unfaithful nation.

Rescue me from those who are

deceitful and wicked.

2 You are God my stronghold.

Why have you rejected me?

Why must I go about mourning,

oppressed by the enemy?

3 Send me your light and your faithful care,

let them lead me;

let them bring me to your holy mountain,

to the place where you dwell.

4 Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God, my joy and my delight.

I will praise you with the lyre,

O God, my God.

5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Saviour and my God.