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    A Devotional for the Depressed and the Insane
    A Devotional for the Depressed and the Insane
    A Devotional for the Depressed and the Insane
    Ebook383 pages1 hour

    A Devotional for the Depressed and the Insane

    By Stephan Hess

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    About this ebook

    My thoughts were, when I discovered that I had ADD, "Well my life is mostly over and now I find out that I have ADD. What could I have accomplished had I known about it when I was younger and could have possibly made the right adjustments to succeed where instead I merely stumbled?" A question...

    Yet that question, like any other question, is something you don't sit on. Because if you do, you really don't want the answer, you want to wallow in self-pity. But if one pursues it, even when some aspects of it appear to be (at least in our lifetime) unanswerable, one pursues their life.

    Answers will come. And sometimes they will come in unexpected ways that words can't quite express. Yet our hearts can feel those answers...and they can take you to places that you never thought you could ever go to.

    If your heart is touched and if you keep on following forward, you'll indeed find yourself in places that you would have never thought of. But please don't stop!

    That's the purpose of this book, "A DEVOTIONAL FOR THE DEPRESSED AND THE INSANE". We get stuck.

    I believe that a great deal of humanity , me included, just give up. We settle.

    But...what if we're not meant to settle, to give up? Then maybe we were meant to live, to really live!...to our dying breath (and maybe even beyond that...)? Who knows?

    If we're not supposed to surrender ourselves to the well-that's-just-the-way-it-is mentality then, for sure, we stand a chance of finding ourselves depressed and, maybe, a little insane if we do surrender. This book is for whoever picks it up. This book is for whoever is struggling.

    Each day a moment to read and then answer a question or two; just for yourself. Write them down in the NOTES/THOUGHTS part if you want to. It will become your book. If you pursue those questions and those answers, it will become a chronicle of your journey, your adventure... No longer a devotional. But your story.

    ...The devotional will become a story...about you.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateAug 18, 2011
    ISBN9781463431044
    A Devotional for the Depressed and the Insane
    Author

    Stephan Hess

    I have attention deficit disorder (ADD) and have struggled with depression from my childhood on. Unable to understand the problems that I encountered through my life, but knowing that "something was wrong" raised a lot of questions for me. I had just recently rediscovered a zen axiom which implied that in the question is the seed to an answer. Since my childhood I have had those questions. And the answers came with more questions; but I also felt that those questions, when addressed honestly, began a spiral journey upwards in my life. An honest question deserves an honest answer. Live an "open door". Through this process of questioning I found my christian faith. However it didn't just end there. Oh no! I still struggled. But I kept on, in fits and starts, with my quest: my questioning of the whys-and-wherefores in my life. Surprisingly, I discovered that my faith gave birth to more questions which, in turn, seemed to cast a light on new answers. A progression. Always going forward; like a journey... ...Along the way, just recently, I discovered I had ADD. Here I am a grandfather, and now what do I do with the rest of my life?...which is, of course, another question drawing me further along into the rest of my life. The journey seems to go on. And with that I have to kind of subjectively guess that maybe, just maybe, our lives are not meant to be stationary; but we are meant to be always moving...journeying...on an adventure! Because that's what it has been for me.

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      A Devotional for the Depressed and the Insane - Stephan Hess

      Day 1

      Matthew 18:2-4 Jesus called forward a little child and sat him in the middle of his disciples. He said to them,

         "This is the truth, except if you will be changed to become like the little children you will find no place for yourselves in the kingdom of heaven.

         Who is the greater in the kingdom of heaven?

         It is that person who will be as humble as this little child."—(iffy)

      Questions:

      Can you find a place without trouble and contention in your heart?

      Is your need the need of an adult? . . . or do you need to be loved as a little child is loved?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 2

      Philippians 2:1 Have you gotten anything from Jesus’ love?

         Have you been encouraged by him?

         Do you think you’ve been touched by his Holy Spirit; maybe even so much that you’re kinder and more caring?—(iffy)

      Questions:

      The kind acts of Jesus… are they seeds that might be planted in your heart?

      Have you clearly heard of the things that Jesus was supposed to have done?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 3

      Philippians 2:7 But [Jesus] just became a nobody, like a day laborer or a carwash attendant, he became very human.—(iffy)

      Questions:

      Do you think that Jesus wants to be better than you?

      Do you think that you’re less than Jesus?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 4

      Philippians 2:14,15 Complaints and arguments you can do without, you are children of God and these times of uncaring and anger need to see the life of God through you who are his bright and shining stars!—(iffy)

      There’s a path through the darkest of places,

      it is a living love that resonates

      in the quietness of the hollow hills,

      at the end it lifts up the wanderer

      who’s now found home in the presence of Christ.

      Question:

      Have you looked to see if there’s a glow in your heart?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 5

      1 John 4:6 We belong to God, he calls us his own children.

         Those who know him respond to us; those who don’t know him tend to ignore us.

         From this we learn something: Where God is in others and where he is not.—(iffy)

      Questions:

      How do other folks look at you? . . . what is in their faces?

      How do you look at other folks? . . . what do they see in your face?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 6

      1 John 4:7 My friends! We must always follow the path of loving one another.

         Love comes from God. That love in our lives shows our birth in Christ!

         That love in our lives is our friendship with God.—(iffy)

      Questions:

      Do you think about love?

      Have you ever thought about what it means to walk in love?

      Are you loved?

      Are you willing to love?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 7

      Proverbs 27:8 The unsettled heart ignores its home and is like a bird flitting from branch to branch.—(iffy)

      Questions:

      Will you find peace by pacing back and forth?

      Do you think it is possible to stop and let God touch your heart? . . . do you think he can, or can’t?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 8

      1 Corinthians 1:25 God’s foolishness stands much higher than the calculated wisdom of human beings.

         God’s flaws (even in reproach and defeat) are impenetrable to the greatest capacity of humanity’s powers.—(iffy)

      Where is the answer from our simple minds

      to the alpine flowers on the mountain,

      poised to bow before the winds of Autumn?

      Yet, in their season, they raise in the Sun

      what they have gotten from the hands of God.

      Question:

      Is it in the mind, or is it in the heart that one can really appreciate the glory of such things?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 9

      Psalm 119:72 All success and wealth I see here [oh God] fade when you speak.—(iffy)

      Values I follow

      will they change in the conflict?

      My heart beats the same.

      Questions:

      How does one succeed?

      Is there an overriding principle?

      And… is it worth it?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 10

      Genesis 4:9 Am I my brother’s caretaker?—(iffy)

      Questions:

      Did he [Cain] just answer his own question?

      Do you, do I, look like our brother’s or sister’s caretaker?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 11

      Exodus 2:22 Have I become a stranger in a strange land, a person without a home?—(iffy)

      Questions:

      What causes that sense of alone-ness?

      How can one reach out from that sense of alone-ness?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 12

      Exodus 31:3 "I [God] have placed in you my Spirit of wisdom, understanding and knowledge to craft and to forge a positive life.

         Through your hands and through your life the creative mind of God is revealed."—(iffy)

      Question:

      Is God struggling to reach out through you?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 13

      Exodus 34:29 When Moses came down from the mountain, after talking with God and receiving the Law, he did not know that his appearance was transformed.—(iffy)

      Questions:

      Where have you been today?

      How do you look?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 14

      Leviticus 6:13 Keep the fire burning on the altar, never let it go out.—(iffy)

      The place that is before the throne of God

      for the atonement and reparation,

      mercy in the face of wrongs committed.

      The place where the fire is always burning.

      Questions:

      Aren’t we supposed to attend to that altar?

      Is your fire burning?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 15

      John 6:28,29 "Well, they asked Jesus, what’s there for us to do that’s the work of God?"

      And Jesus replied, Put your complete trust and confidence in the one whom God has sent.—(iffy)

      Jesus is asked about a course of action.

      But he appears to direct that question

      toward the putting on of an attitude.

      Question:

      What does that say about the work of God?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 16

      John 7:37,38 On the last day of the festival, Jesus called out, standing,

         "If anyone thirsts, I will quench your thirst; you can always come to me.

         The scriptures say that anyone who believes in me, ‘Rivers of living water will surge out from the core of your being.’"—(iffy)

      He gives to our need

      and his life rushes through us.

      Rivers to forests.

      Question:

      Have you simply walked over to Jesus and asked?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 17

      John 8:7 These [who wanted to stone the woman caught in moral violation] insisted on an answer from Jesus. Finally he stood up and said to them,

         "Is there any man here who is perfect?

      If there is, then he should throw the first stone."—(iffy)

      Questions:

      If you were perfect what would you do?

      Do you know what Jesus did?

      If you know, or find out, then why do you think that Jesus acted in the way that he did?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 18

      John 8:12 Jesus again spoke, "I am the light of the world.

         The one who follows me will not have a dark path to walk on, that person’s life will be filled with light!"—(iffy)

      Sunlight on a road

      is like an illumined map.

      Christ is just ahead.

      Questions:

      What Jesus claims, does it challenge what we know?..or have been told?

      Does, perhaps, what Jesus claims challenge us to do something about it?

      NOTES/THOUGHTS:

      Day 19

      Job 24:1 Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his

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