Charles Haddon Spurgeon had an interesting comment in the devotional I use each day called Beside Still Waters, Word of Comfort for the Soul, edited by Roy H. Clarke. (There, the commercial is done...go buy the book!) He writes, "It may be that I am speaking to a sad one who is suffering from mental depression. Some of us are prone to that condition [he was both in the usual course of things, but also in connection with his preaching life and frequent ill health]...if you happen to have been born on a foggy day and swallowed so much fog that you have found it shading your spirit ever since, then you can only be strong by faith." I must say this is an interesting Old Preacher's Tale, if not an Old Wive's Tale, based on the idea that we are one with our world in more ways than we realize...a truth, nevertheless. (Statistics show that full moon causes mental patients to get worse and babies to be born more frequently than any other time of the month, which makes sense, given that they were probably conceived under a full moon, too....AAAOOOOOO...WEREWOLVES OF LONDON!)My version of Charlie's Theorem would be that you spent the first nine months of your existence in a custom made environment with the precise dna-combination the Lord engineered only for YOU, were suddenly forcibly ejected by someone who claimed she loves you, were probably slapped by a complete stranger to get you to breathe (some of us came out yellin' and didn't need the encouragement...based on parental first hand testimony!), and now time is killin' you while you're killin' time waiting for the Grim Reaper to come and collect you. Is it any wonder you get down every once in a while, even if you were born on a sunny day with perfect breezes blowing and the Feng Shui of your birth place was in perfect harmony with everything in the immediate vicinity?!!
I've occasionally thought about John 3:5, "Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'" Well, we're all "born of water"...you know, "her water broke" is the kickoff sign that the little bundle of joy is about to shuffle onto this mortal coil! So, getting "born of the Spirit" is the REAL key to entering the Gates of Heaven when the Grim Reaper drops you off on the other side of this vale of tears and is the REALLY Good News (euangelion, for you Greek scholars who speak of The Gospel). Soooo...if, Christian, as Charlie Haddon said, you're bummed out, singin' the Blues, and/or are walking through one of the valleys of life, perhaps another quote of his might put things in perspective: "Had any other condition been better for you that the one in which you find yourself, divine love would have place you there."
Now, on the off chance that you're reading this and haven't been born of the Spirit ("born again" in our current lingo)...got good reason for not asking Him into your life?
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