Weeds There is one thing that is true of every garden. You have to plant and nurture what you want to grow, but weeds will just magically appear all by themselves. Not only that, but weeding a garden is hard work because, unless you dig down and pull out their roots, the same weeds will keep coming back.

Life can be like that. Happiness takes a lot of work, but depression seems to appear unexpectedly all by itself. Why is that?

Here is the ugly truth about our existence. It is generally boring, hard, and often unfair. We repeat many of the same activities day after day, and most of them aren’t fun at all. On top of that, those around us often make life even more miserable by the selfish things that they do.

Wow! That all came out more depressing than I imagined it would. Stick with me, though, because I want to show you how to pull out those weeds of depression. Before we get to the cure, though, we must first discover where the “roots” are so that we can dig them out.

Much of our unhappiness is rooted in the feeling that our rights, or the rights of people we care about, are being violated. In other words, we aren’t getting what we deserve. We tend feel that we deserve more material things, better friends or family, better health, or just more “fun” time.  If we don’t deal with those emotions, they will eventually turn into a nasty, bitter attitude.  

If these weeds of unhappiness aren’t pulled out, we will wind up being both bitter and unhappy. One writer, M. P. Green, describes the result this way: “Self-pity weeps on the devil’s shoulder, turning to Satan for comfort. His invitation is: ‘Come unto me all you that are grieved, peeved, misused, and disgruntled and I will spread on the sympathy. You will find me a never-failing source of the meanest attitudes and the most selfish sort of misery. At my altar you may feel free to fail and fall, and there to sigh and fret. There I will feed your soul on fears, and indulge your ego with envy and jealousy, bitterness and spite. There I will excuse you from every cross, duty, and hardship, and permit you to yield unto temptation.’”

A bitter person is never a happy person. That unhappiness leads to the depression that sprouts up over and over again in our lives, just like ugly weeds do in our garden. How can we pull out the  the root problem that causes this discontent and bitterness? The answer may surprise you.

This root of unhappiness grows when we don’t have a close relationship with the One who made us. Notice how the Bible explains this in Hebrews 13:5: “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself

[God] has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.’” In other words, God is saying that if we have Him, we have all we need. We rest in His presence. We know that we don’t deserve God’s blessings and that He gave His life for us. The Bible says that God gives His followers a peaceful heart. He promises to “keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, [God] because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock” (Isaiah 26:3–4).

A close relationship with God produces happiness because as His children, we are a part of the kingdom He is building. He gives us an opportunity to live out the reason why we were created. God made us in such a way that we can only find the fulfillment we need by having a relationship with Him. “For by [Jesus Christ] all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and FOR HIM” (Colossians 1:16). “There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6).

If your life feels meaningless, it’s because your sin has separated you from your Creator. Only Christ’s sacrifice can erase that barrier and make a way for you to come home to God. He is the One who suffered for you. His death met God’s holy demand that all sin be paid for. He died for your sin so that you can live forever. You can begin that new life now. When you trust Christ, you will have a new, faithful Friend, and a new family in which to flourish (God’s church).

If you surrender your life to Christ, then you can say with me that, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13–14). Please feel free to contact me using the information at the top of this column if you have any further questions.