When We Feel Like Going Insane

In which we find hope, relief, maybe even contentment and joy, on the bad days.

I learned a new term recently: Facefloor. Like facepalm only, times fifty, and just...way more accurate. 

That feeling when your day/week/month/year okay life... has been too frustrating or people too hurtful and your brain-won't-rest-and-you're-bored-but-there's-too-much-to-do-and-its-all-hopeless-and-muddled. There is, simultaneously, too much to think about and not enough to occupy your mind. And it's driving you nuts and  you don't know how to cope.

Or maybe I'm the only one who gets that slightly crazed, I'm gonna scream feeling where you wish you were doing great things, lack the drive to do them, but feel like life is completely empty and pointless unless you are living every minute to its full potential, running around doing everything you can to change all the bad and put more good into the world. Because, hello, I'm a Christian and I've got to do my part to carry out the great commission or else I will be a total failure as a redeemed human being.

 There are opportunities...people who are asking you for time and help...but it's really complicated and you don't know what to say or do most of the time. So the ending desire is, as stated, to just put your face to the floor. Or bang it against a wall, letting said face stay there. And groan and whimper like a little puppy. And then, if you're like me, probably cry.

Aaaaaand then get mad at yourself for having a selfish little pity party.

It's kinda brutal, guys.

So, over this weekend, I have made a list on how I get relief from the labyrinth of my own troubled thoughts, to quiet that worrisome fire...and maybe even be calm again.

There is, perhaps, better ways to go about doing this. It may not have the same effect on other people as they do on me. Hey, it might not even be all that wise.

I could probably do an extensive study in the Bible for times like this. I fact I probably should. Then I get to thinking about all the subjects I really ought to delve into scripture with and schoooom...I'm off into that whirlwind thinking maze again. Too much, too much to process...

But this is what I came up with. This is what soothes my soul. Take it or leave it. Use it or laugh at it. I don't care. It's patched together. It's not going to fix my life. It's not a remedy for all problems. There is more to it. If I had months to work this out, I would probably come up with more studied, profound ways to deal with my own issues. In fact, I might just do that months from now.  I will most likely look back at this particular post and wonder what on earth I was trying to get across.

This also doubles as another reasons for Eucharisteo entry. This particular list just has a specific focus today. Here goes:

26. The very ability to look around and be thankful for blessings, Be they large or very small. It is a blessing in and of itself.  It is, perhaps, difficult to do at times...

27...Last Thursday I was out doing errands with my Mum, sitting in the car worrying, thinking, mulling over people, possible situations, past hurts, future problems. But stop. The sky was crystal clear blue, and it was sunny and unusually warm. That sun was reflecting off the snow on the mountains, making it such a brilliant day. Which got me to thinking...

28. How truly awesome it is. Little atoms, the electrons and neutrons floating around...

29...Each one is a microscopic building block for air and snow and the sun's heat.

30. How we have the ozone layer, protecting us from harm, but letting through the light that we need...

31. Millions of factors making the sky that glorious blue.

32. And there are billions and billions of these things going on, those atoms connecting, stacking, exchanging, moving. I can't even wrap my head around all that constant, bustling activity and infinite order, on a global scale...much less a galactic one.

33. It's all bursting, swelling with life and discoveries. It's noisy and busy and chaotic yet organized.

34.  And I am minuscule. I am a tiny, little, fragmented part of it all. I understand so little of it all. But I have the ability to understand that I can't understand it all. (did you hear that? That was my mind exploding)

35. This post...and especially this quote from it: "..This is about more than thankfulness—this is about finding delight in things that ride the edge of awful and awesome (like the first snowfall). If you’ve got the choice to hate it or love it, try loving it."

36. Realizing that we do not have to always feel sublimely happy or perfectly at peace. It is an unachievable thing, to be the perfect christian, who is always on a spiritual high and always ready with an answer for every conceivable question about their faith, who always knows how to help a friend who is hurting or struggling with something. Sometimes, so it seems, we have got to just slog through it all the best we can, holding on to God and His word with a white-knuckled death grip.

37. Remembering that since we are so minuscule, the world is not going to end when we go nuts. Granted, our world may seem like it is going to fall to pieces some days...shredded apart by discouragement and sin and grief and misery and hurt and I-could-keep-going...but life goes on. Come out the better person after it all. Easier said then done, I know. Trust me, I know.

38. The ability to sometimes, shut down all these stressful thoughts, fold up the crazy mind-map, and just focus on something simple. Like a movie. Or a board game. Or a walk outside. A book.  Hallelujah amen praise the Lord for the capacity to just zone out. You have no idea.

39. Of course, reading my Bible is always a blessing. I can find scriptures, perhaps ones that I did not expect, that put my mind at rest. Like Titus 3:4-7.

40. Having My hope in God, and not in man.