It seems like everyone around me (including myself) has been in a depressed-like funk lately.
I am not sure if it is just because it has been a long dreary winter or what, but it is touching lives like I’ve never seen before.

I also have noticed that a lot of us are not only turning to God for help, but there seems to be a lot of interest in books and MP3 talks that we are turning to in search of relief.
Some are relying on the classics, but others are delving into modern books on the power of positive thinking and interior strength which sadly to say are written mostly by new agers.
Those thieves of souls in sheep’s clothing.


I know for myself, all the good Catholic books I have read and all the talks I have listened to have done very little for my spiritual being (or at least the immediate results).
It seems that the new agers and their books are giving some people hope, only to let them down again…much like a certain president who promised “hope” and has let is voters down.


We are searching for some “quick fix”, something to change our lives and clear us from the “funk” we are in, but I think this verse in Jeremiah tells us what our problem is;

Jeremiah
Chapter 17


7  Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.


8  He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat  when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.


9 More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?


10 I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, To reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.


We tend to let our feelings, emotions, principles and our heart guide us in our lives, but as in
Jeremiah, our hearts are tortured and it is beyond us to be able to figure it out.
Only God knows what’s in our hearts, so Him alone should we be asking for help and guidance.

Books and talks can inspire us to look at ourselves, but only God can make us want to change;
our wills can be stong but remembering that God, at his weakest is still stronger than our wills are at their greatest.


Maybe God is giving us a little more suffering during Lent so we can offer it up. Maybe the words Saint Augustine wrote can give us some more insight;


“Our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in you.”