(Breathtaking photo courtesy of Audrey Zannini. Please don't steal it.)Let me begin by apologizing for the length of my absence from the blogging world. A lot has been going on in my life. In fact, it has been completely turned upside down. It seems as though everything has changed. It seems God felt my existence was overdue for some spring cleaning.
Over the past year or so, I have suffered off-and-on from depression. Nothing serious, nothing requiring any kind of medical attention, but the kind of depression that can set in and subtly start to overtake your life, the way vines will consume a building that isn't well cared for.
I was constantly reminded of how well I was doing - about my grades and my scholarship and the fact that I was buying myself a new car and that I had lots of friends...I was even making a claim to modest YouTube fame. But all of the accomplishments felt hollow. There was something missing. There was an emptiness - a hole that desperately needed to be filled.
As is my nature, I put on a happy face, a mask for my friends and family - one that disguised my pain from the world all too well. Only the Man Upstairs wasn't fooled for one minute. Even though it went unspoken in my prayers, God knew what was missing in my life, as he always does.
In all my experiences drifting in and out of faith, one of the few constants that I believed in were guardian angels. But not winged beings of light descending on clouds - just regular people sent to make a difference in other people's lives. And it was in my darkest moments of depression and self-pity that God sent a guardian angel to me.
Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments in just one over-arching maxim: "love each other." I had forgotten what that meant until a sweet young lady reminded me of the kindness and generosity that the human soul is capable of, but that is so often stifled by our self-serving society. The world could learn a thing or two from love. I know I have.
AMEN!!!!!!
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