Jesus is Your Life Jacket

May 10, 2026 
 
Reflections from the Heart of Allan Redenius
I'm beginning to figure out why so many people are depressed and anxious.  Here is the short of it.  They have nothing to do!
 
The last two weeks after my knee surgery, I've been pretty much immobile.  Of course, my lovely wife, Armona, who is now the crutch under my arms, has helped to keep me from falling into the malady of depression.  Without her, there would be no one to talk to, no shoulder to cry on, no one to tell me in a loving way, “This is only temporary…and it too shall pass.”  We all need someone to come alongside us when things aren't going so well.  We all need someone to throw us a life jacket when we are drowning.
 
What I've discovered about being immobile is that about the only thing on television is the news.  Watching and listening to the news hour after hour surely can be depressing.  Being on the frontline of the progress of wars and rumors of wars, watching people, as their hearts grow cold, commit one atrocity upon another with the innocent as their prey, and of course, having a front row seat for natural disasters such as fires and earthquakes, is indeed depressing.  Then of course there is the political drama that we all endure.  Pull my hair out and scream!  Where is my anti-depression drug?
 
As I sit here, sometimes in my boredom, I remember what my dad and many of my older friends told me about retirement.  “When you retire, you just can't go home and sit in your easy chair and do nothing.  You must retire to something.”  Even one of my older friends told me once upon a time that too many of his friends retire, go home, sit in their chair and six months later they are dead.  That's a fate I am not going to endure, dying of boredom.
 
There’s a praise song we've been singing at church, Made for More.  Part of the lyrics go like this.  “I wasn't made to be tending a grave.”  If you're sitting around with nothing to do and you're bored out of your head, are you already, “tending a grave, your own?”  There's no sense in just waiting to die.  God made you for more.
  
Turn off the news and relieve your anxiety by taking a walk with the Lord.  He will guide your footsteps and lead you on paths of righteousness.  Jesus is better than any anti-anxiety drug.   He is your life jacket to keep you afloat.
 
Love in Christ!
Pastor Allan  
 
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