Moods go by Kicking

*disclaimer - this post is about bad moods - I'm not downplaying depression or severe emotional trauma or anything like that, so please don't take my words to mean that!

My, how I love Oswald Chambers! As I go through My Utmost for His Highest, he is fast becoming a man I would love to have dinner with. Which is not possible, obviously, but through this post I am going to have an imaginary conversation with the deceased!

Here are some lines from his May 20th quibble: "Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking. A mood nearly always has its seat in the physical condition, not in the moral. It is a continual effort not to listen to the moods which arise from a physical condition; never submit to them for a second. We have to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and shake ourselves, and we will find that we can do what we said we could not. The curse with most of us is that we won't."

There you have it: moods don't leave us by praying, they leave us by kicking. I don't know why this image makes me smile and warms my heart, but it does. So much! 

I have bad moods, as do we all. Sometimes I wake up in one, sometimes it comes on quickly, because of something someone said (or didn't say) and sometimes the bad mood sneaks in for no reason at all. I think the most likely culprit of a bad or sad mood is my negative mind. Those thoughts get to going and where a second ago I was as happy as I could be - BOOM - and I get mopey. 

A pity party ensues.

I envision myself in this pity party and then Mr. Chambers comes along and says "NO. My dear, drag yourself up by the scruff of your neck and GO ON."

My response would be, "Mr. Chamber's - but how?!" (He is not a man I could call by his first name!)

Perhaps he would recite 2 Timothy 1:7 to me, "My dear, God gave you not a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control." And he would continue on: "Get up off the couch. Change your thoughts. Are you feeling downtrodden? Afraid? Like you got the short end of the stick? Your heavenly Father didn't create you to get stuck feeling those things. He created you to act and to trust him."

I'm sure his answer would not be quite enough so I would come back, "But it's not that easy to do!"

And every so eloquently, yet perhaps a little harshly, he would say. "Yes it is. Kick that mood away. Stand up. You have two working legs and two working feet. Stand up. Move on. As Luke told us, 'Stand firm and you will win life' (21:19). You can't kick your mood by staying where you are. You must get up and face not only the day, but your circumstances and your infernal mood. God isn't going to always help you through your circumstances, or your mood swings. He wants you to move beyond them and focus on Him, and what you know is true. He wants you to win this life of yours, but you cannot do that stuck in this place. You have to stand up."

What if I'm really obstinate and say, "But I can't!"

To which he would respond..."Can't, or won't?"

Ouch. It is at this point,  I'd like to think I stand up. Perhaps with a helping hand from Mr. Chambers. I would need the help of something - the Bible, his words, or some kind of quote I keep in my memory banks to pull out at such times. I agree that bad moods aren't prayed away; it takes effort and focus and a conscious choice. Perhaps it even takes the image of Mr. Chambers in your mind telling you to kick the mood away, shake yourself off, and move. Perhaps it means you need to think more about "can't" versus "won't" and realize you DO have the power to get up and over whatever is keeping you down. Because my friends, you DO have the power to get up. Your God in heaven, His son, and the Advocate in the form of the Holy Spirit inside you have given you that power!