Do you feel hopeless? Take this study.

“I get so depressed sometimes I wish I could die!” the sad woman exclaimed. “You don’t know what it’s like to live with a man like my husband!”

“I realize it may be bad, Maria,” her pastor consoled. “But while he’s at work, can’t you shake off this depression that gets you down? Have you tried reading the Bible or listening or viewing some good Christian programs on radio or TV?”

She shook her head. “Oh, life with my husband isn’t the only thing that gets me down. It’s life in general these days–so much trouble going on in the world–war, sickness, increase in crime and immorality. What if my children get involved with drugs or something like that?”

“Now, Maria, you’re looking for trouble,” answered her pastor. “Yes, I agree these are bad days in which we live. But we have the same Lord today that Christians down through the centuries have had. He makes all the difference in a Christian’s life.

If we set our affections on things above, we won’t be dragged down by things on this earth. God doesn’t want His children to live in the dumps. He can lift us up to the heavenlies with His joy and peace. But we have to take every problem to Him and trust Him to take care of it!”

Maria is like many Christians today. They spend too much time down in the dumps with the devil, when they could enjoy the princely privileges God gives His children even in this life.

Down in the dumps

The dumps isn’t a pretty place. All kinds of garbage lie around. Unpleasant smoke stings the nostrils with its acrid fumes. The company there isn’t pleasant either, for you can hardly stand yourself at times! Your mind whispers discouraging suggestions such as, “Why don’t you just give up” and “Why don’t you kill yourself? The garbage surrounding a person in the dumps is enough to depress anyone. There are those old regrets (but you can’t relive the past). There are present problems. (But does worrying ever solve them?)Sometimes the future seems hopeless.

When we are in the dumps we are not much use to anyone, and we certainly are no testimony for the Lord. We are miserable. We can’t sleep. We snap and bite. Our faith is at a low ebb. And we are vulnerable to Satan.

Up with the Lord

Jesus said to His followers, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). When we turn to the Lord in faith away from our garbage dump of troubles, we find a wonderful peace steals into our hearts. We experience such grace that suddenly we want to sing as the angels in Heaven. “Praise the Lord!”

Jesus also said that where our treasure is, there also will be our heart. If we count our treasure as being in Heaven, then the temporary things that take place in this world will not matter half so much. For as our minds are set on things above, we will know in our hearts that God’s hand is on everything concerning you.

Dr. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.”

TAKE THE NEXT STEP: Depression is NOT spiritual failure

About the Author Muriel Larson

I was estranged from my husband.  I lived in my parents’ home to help my mother take care of my elderly grandparents.   They were 79 and 80 years old with one suffering with late stage Alzheimer’s. We also ran our photography/video business out of our own home.

On that February day in the early morning hours my husband, Gordon Randall Gwathney — we call him Randy — broke into my family home totally out of control. I had never seen him this way and I had known him since I was 4. He began beating and choking me till I was convinced he was going to kill me. I yelled for my mother.

Mom got up and came to where we were and told Randy that if he didn’t leave she would call the police. He told her to go ahead and call them. He followed Mom and I followed him. All the time he was cussing and acting out of control. Before we even got to the phone he attacked me again. Mom tried to stop him and then he started beating her. I jumped him and got him off her long enough for her to get away. He turned and hit me so hard that it knocked me down. He went after Mom and I got up and followed him to where Mom was. I noticed him taking something out of his pocket and in an instant he shot and killed her.

I then ran to my grandparent’s room hoping to protect them somehow. I heard Randy chasing me down the hall. As soon as I got to their door and shut it behind me he started beating on it. All I could think about was getting help for my mama. Finally the beating on the door stopped and I opened it just a crack. I told Grandpa that Randy shot mama and that I had to go next door and get my brother, Travis, for help and call 911. I told him to keep the door locked. I went out the window and promised him I would be right back.

The unbelievable happens

Once over at my brothers, Travis got his gun and I called 911. They told me to go outside to see if Randy’s truck was still there. Travis went out back and I went out front. Travis was now at the fence line that separated our yards. As I looked to my left I saw something. It was Randy. At that moment a gun battle ensued between my brother and Randy. Travis yelled for me to get back in the house.

In the end my brother had been shot seven times and my mother and grandparents all were shot dead as well. Randy fled and was caught 24 hours later.

Since then I have lost my business and my home and at times have lived in my truck. My life has been destroyed. I’m financially ruined because of all this and my family has no idea how to get over this. This was the first triple homicide that ever happened in our small town. (Read the news reports of this tragic event also here and here.)

More than I could handle

In a year I had buried everyone that lived in my house. My mom was my best friend. She was murdered the day before her birthday, which was on Valentine’s day. She would have been 52. I had always been very close to my family and losing them in such a manner was more than I could take.

God’s peace and the power of forgiveness

Yet in the midst of all this incredible loss I kept praying and begging God to give me the peace and forgiveness that I desperately needed. I wanted God to somehow bring good out of this terrible situation. Now, 19 months later, God has given me the peace and forgiveness I needed. I now share my testimony with churches and women’s groups. It hasn’t been easy, but God never left my side.

I have truly forgiven Randy. It was God’s grace that has given me the peace and forgiveness that I needed. My goal is to help others who have been through a tragedy like this. I can let them know that even though life will never be the same it is still possible to find joy in the middle of the storm. I’m also trying to help Randy get through this. God helping me to see people the way that He sees them — not for what they have done, but for who they are. I realized Randy was a lost and broken soul that needed prayer and forgiveness too.

I knew that I had to give my life to Christ. In turn He would take care of all my needs. I praise His sweet and precious name. He gave his only Son to die in my place for all my sins, to mark my debt as paid in full, canceled.

God alone can take the broken pieces of our lives and bring us peace. He alone can bring good out of the devastation.  What He has done for me He can do for you too if you just believe in Him and give your life to Him.

Has life brought you some devastating event that is more than you can handle? As amazing as it seems God does care and longs to bring that much needed peace to your heart.

Take a look at your life. How would you describe it? There are things we dream of doing one day, there are things we wish we could forget. In the Bible, it says that Jesus came to make all things new. What would your life look like if you could start over with a clean slate?

Living with hope

If you are looking for peace, there is a way to balance your life. No one can be perfect, or have a perfect life. But every one of us has the opportunity to experience perfect grace through a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised.

Is this the life for you?

If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.

Thanks to the quick action of my fellow police officers, I was rushed to a hospital. A few days later, once it became clear I was going to survive, a surgeon came into my room and told my wife, Patti Ann, and me that I would be paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of my life. He told my wife I would need to be institutionalized. I was married just eight months, and my wife, twenty-three years old, was three months pregnant. Patti Ann was crying uncontrollably at the cards she had been dealt, and I cried too. I was locked in my body, unable to move or to reach out to her.

Our faith suddenly became very important to us: the Catholic mass, prayers, our need for God. It was God’s love that put me back together. And it came from many different corners. Christians of every orientation, Jews, Muslims, and people of no faith at all were rooting for me.

A week after I was shot, the media asked to speak to my wife. Though still in shock, Patti Ann bravely told everybody that she would trust God to do what was best for her family. That set the tone not only for my recovery but also for the rest of our lives. When things like this happen, people sometimes distance themselves from God. Patti Ann taught me that you don’t do that. You trust God. She trusted, and here I am.

I spent the next eighteen months in the hospital. While I was there my wife gave birth to our son, Connor. At his baptism I told everyone I forgave the young teen who shot me. I wanted to free myself of all the negative, destructive emotions that this act of violence awoke in me-the anger, the bitterness, the hatred. I needed to free myself of those so I could be free to love my wife and our child and those around us.

I often tell people that the only thing worse than a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart. Such an attitude would have extended my tragic injury into my soul, hurting my wife, son, and others even more. It is bad enough that the physical effects are permanent, but at least I can choose to prevent spiritual injury.

A year or two later, Shavod Jones, the young man who shot me, called my home from prison and apologized to my wife, my son, and me. I told him that I hoped he and I could work together sometime in the future. I hoped that we would travel around the country together to share our different understandings of that act of violence that changed both our lives, and the understanding it gave us about what is most important in life. In 1995 Shavod was released from prison. Three days later, he died in a motorcycle accident. But Shavod Jones is with me wherever my story is told. We have helped many people, the two of us.

Before I was shot I had not been very committed to my faith. The shooting changed that. I feel close to heaven today in a way I never knew before, and it makes me very happy. I know it may be hard to understand, but I would rather be like this and feel the way I do, than go on living like I was before.

Of course, I have my ups and downs. Some days, when I am not feeling well, I get angry. I get depressed. There have been times when I even felt like killing myself. But I have come to realize that anger is a wasted emotion. So I forgive that young man all over again, and every time I tell my story, I think of Shavod, and I forgive him.

People often ask if I forgave Shavod right away, or if it took time. It has evolved over fourteen years. I think about it almost every day. I was angry at him, but I was also puzzled, because I found I couldn’t hate him. More often than not I felt sorry for him. I wanted him to find peace and purpose in his life. I wanted him to turn his life to helping and not hurting people. That’s why I forgave him. It was also a way of moving on, a way of putting the terrible incident behind me.

We still struggle every day. My wife wants to know why a teenager had to do this to me. My son is growing up; he is now fourteen years old. He sees other fathers and sons playing and wants to know why he couldn’t have that experience with his dad. So we still struggle. I have learned that prayer is something we do in our time and the answers come in God’s time. And prayers are not always answered the way we think they should be.

Months and years have come and gone and I’ve never regretted forgiving Shavod. Back then we never imagined it would carry any importance in other people’s lives. We did it for ourselves. But ever since people have wanted to hear about this act of forgiveness. It helped us, but more importantly but it has helped others as well. Popes, presidents, heads of state, and ordinary people have invited us into their offices or homes to tell our story. We don’t always have the right words, but I believe it is our act of forgiveness that speaks to them.

I’ve been able to reach out to children in particular, because it was a child of my city that did this terrible thing to me. I often speak at schools about nonviolence, and I know from responses I get that many of the children have embraced my message and internalized it. Instead of responding to violence with more violence they have decided to choose forgiveness and love.

So God has turned something terrible into something beautiful. I think God wants to use both our abilities and our disabilities. He needs our arms and legs and minds and hearts and all that we have, to let others know that he is alive and well and loves us and wants us to love each other.

Right now the towns around me are filled with families who lost loved ones on September 11. There are broken hearts all over the place. I myself lost many dear friends. They are part of us, but through our pain we feel God reaching out to us. Even in this difficult time-especially in this difficult time-he is offering us the peace of forgiveness.

My story is told in Johann Christoph Arnold’s book, Why Forgive?, but I think the most timely story in the book is that of Gordon Wilson, whose daughter, Marie, was killed when terrorists blew up a building in Northern Ireland. They both lay trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building, holding each other’s hands. Just hours later Gordon told reporters, “I have lost my daughter but I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. That will not bring her back.”

I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that those who organized the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon go free with an act of forgiveness. They should be arrested and receive a just punishment. As an American who served in the U.S. military I want to stand up and protect America, to rally around the flag. There’s a place for that.

But where are the answers, if you just deal with it on a human level? Why were they hurt, and why are they dead, these friends we miss so badly now? It’s hard to find those answers. But on a divine level I know that all these women and men who were taken from us so brutally are experiencing eternal happiness and are waiting to meet us.

Forgiveness is a topic that people need to hear about today more than ever. As human beings we need forgiveness, whether we are giving it or asking for it. And people make up countries. So that means countries need forgiveness, can offer forgiveness. Forgiveness is really about our own healing. We may experience slight offenses, or they may be profound. But in the end it is our choice, and it is the survival of our own souls that is at stake.

Take a look at your life. How would you describe it? Contented? Rushed? Exciting? Stressful? Moving forward? Holding back? For many of us it’s all of the above at times. There are things we dream of doing one day, there are things we wish we could forget. In the Bible, it says that Jesus came to make all things new. What would your life look like if you could start over with a clean slate?

Living with hope
If you are looking for peace, there is a way to balance your life. No one can be perfect, or have a perfect life. But every one of us has the opportunity to experience perfect grace through a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised. Is this the life for you?

If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.

Reprinted from the Bruderhof Forgiveness Guide. Used with permission.

In a commentary on this tragedy, Judith Timson of The Globe and Mail asks “Have we had enough yet?“:

The details of this crime have consumed, fascinated and brutalized us, leading us in one dark direction (he was totally calm as he stabbed him) or another (but why couldn’t the other passengers have done something?). Mini disquisitions on the depravity or deficiencies of the human spirit.

We seemingly couldn’t get enough of the incessantly repeated eyewitness reports, preceded by that slightly officious “and we must warn you, what you are about to hear is extremely graphic” proviso, which probably made more people rush to turn up the radio than to turn it off.

We can’t seem to get enough details about horrible crimes. Ms Timson ponders on an answer to why this is:

Our reaction – the horror, the fascination, the embarrassed wish for more details, the desire for revenge and even our questioning of the behaviour of others on the bus – all of it says the same thing, nothing more and nothing less.

It says we’re human. It says we’re capable of being shocked. (Thank God.) It says we’re struggling to understand such disparate realities as mental illness or crowd behaviour or the nature of random, senseless events.

How has the news of this latest tragic act of evil affected you? As a frequent bus rider myself, I can’t say that I feel any less secure now than before. How do you feel about it? Do you agree with the author of the article in that our culture unhealthily focuses too much on these sort of tragedies?

To read more:
Avoiding Credit Card Traps - Smart tips on recognizing and avoiding poor credit card offers
At All Costs: When Success isn’t Enough – One woman’s story of pursuing success

To learn more:
Crown Financial – A ministry desiring to see people find financial freedom in light of an eternal perspective

Vancouver Police are looking for a brazen thief who stole three rings off the hand of a 91-year-old recovering from surgery in hospital.

On Tuesday, speaking through tears, Ulmer [the victim] said one of the stolen rings was her "mother’s, mother’s ring." The man also stole the wedding band Ulmer has worn for nearly seven decades. (Source: CTV)

British Columbia’s health minister George Abbott called the thief a jerk "akin to the lowest form of human life." Everyone involved in the incident, or who hears about it, seems to agree that the thief’s actions are morally reprehensible. But while many in western society would object vigorously to such actions, they would at the same time say that morality is a personal matter, that there are no absolute moral laws. These two beliefs seem to be in conflict: On one hand, a person objects to what seems to be a clear example of a moral wrong, but on the other they dismiss the possibility of moral absolutes as "intolerant".

Let’s hope that this poor lady gets her rings returned. In the meantime, what do you say about "moral absolutes"? Are there really absolutely right and wrong actions, or is claiming things are really right and wrong "intolerant" of others’ opinions?