Now and then it happens that the need of a congregation to hear a comforting and strengthening word from God, coincides with the preacher's need to hear a comforting and strengthening word from God. Today is one of those days. Both for me, and for many of you, the last several weeks have been full of trouble. I need strength and guidance from God; you need strength and guidance from God, and we all need to know, how do we seek and find that strength?

The troubles I'm facing begin with my grief over the death of Chris Peterson, and the difficulty of conducting a funeral for someone I've known for 28 years. Then there is the illness of our parish administrator Sharen Six, and the dawning realization that she will probably not be able to come back to work until January, if at all. Then I have some guilt over not getting the furnace working for Sunday's services; and some frustration at driving to Seaside Friday morning, for a meeting that was actually taking place in Hollister.

The troubles you are facing are new diagnoses of serious illness, ongoing treatment for serious illnesses, grief over the death of spouses, two couples grieving over miscarriages this fall, unemployment, anxiety over the war in Iraq, fear of the flu, discouragement over election results, and psychological depression. The first thing most of us do when facing such troubles, is to ask other people to pray for us. There are two things we hope for when we ask for prayers: one is for the trouble to be fixed, healed or reversed. The other thing we want is strength and guidance in case it can't be fixed. Once we've asked for prayers, what next? What can we do ourselves to find that strength and receive that guidance? That's what I need to hear today, and some of you need to hear it even more than I do.

So I made a list of the things I know we can do, and the list easily divides into the spiritual things and the psychological things. Needless to say, I am doing some of these things, but not all the ones I need to do. The image that speaks strongly to me of this process of seeking strength is from the First Song of Isaiah, and I put it on the cover of the bulletin: drawing water from the springs of salvation. Those springs of salvation are the deep wells of God's abundant grace, God's comfort, God's healing power, God's guidance, and God's providence. The prophet Isaiah says, "you shall draw water from the springs of salvation. He does not say if you are really good, and if you already know how to pray, you might be able to draw water if you can find the spring. He says, you shall draw water. And Jesus says, come unto me all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Let's look at the psychological things first, because in many ways our psychological state can enhance, or obscure our spiritual state. The first thing to do when we are weighed down by troubles, is to try to distinguish among grief, appropriate sadness, appropriate guilt, and depression. These four are quite different experiences which may feel very similar. Grief is the normal emotional response to loss - to the death of someone you care about, as well as to the loss of a place, such as a home you have moved out of, and the loss of an ability, such as the ability to walk without assistance. The strength we need in grief, is for feeling the sadness without surrendering to it, and then learning how to love in separation or to live differently.

Grief is closely related to appropriate sadness, which is caused by circumstances beyond one's control, such as a decision made by a boss, or the results of an election, or a news report of a disaster. The strength we need for bearing sadness, is the ability to see a bigger context, and the awareness that we have choices. Appropriate guilt is a feeling of sadness, and remorse about one's own actions, because those actions are now perceived to be wrong. The strength we need to deal with appropriate guilt, is to be able to confess to God-to say this is what I did, and I'm sorry. Forgive me. Each of these psychological states: grief, sadness and guilt, may feel like depression, but they are not the same thing.

Psychological depression is an illness, which we now know is caused by a change in the chemistry of the brain. You can recognize depression in yourself or in someone you are close to, if you see more than half of these 10 symptoms:

1. change in appetite or weight, either increased or decreased
2. change in sleeping, either increased or decreased
3. agitated behavior, or slowed behavior
4. fatigue and loss of energy
5. loss of interest in living
6. feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt
7. difficulty in making decisions, and inability to concentrate
8. loud, obnoxious, anti-social behavior
9. difficulty with self-control, especially control of anger
10. thinking and talking about death or suicide

I have four simple suggestions that will be helpful in finding strength, even before we come to the spiritual resources. None of these will cure your troubles, but they will lighten the burden. The first one is to tell your family and friends that you need their support. Don't assume they can read your mind. Don't beat around the bush-say it directly, "I need your support." The second suggestion is to give yourself permission not to get everything done. With Sharen gone, I have had to do this-I haven't responded yet to some phone messages and e-mails. In very difficult times, you may decide to lay down an obligation you've enjoyed before but is too much right now. Louisa Beeler has decided she doesn't have the energy to put on Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for her family, so she and Norm are leaving town until January. That is a healthy choice. My third simple suggestion is to get more exercise, even if it is an easy walk around the block. Get your whole body moving farther and longer than the walk from the house to the car. Exercise will provide a physical lift, which translates into an emotional lift, and you'll sleep better as a bonus. The fourth simple suggestion for finding strength, is to immerse yourself in someone else's story. There are many ways to do this-I do it by reading novels, especially British detective stories. Some people watch sitcoms on TV, or go to a movie. Even better is to have lunch with a friend and listen to what's going on in their life. I can't tell you how often I have been weighed down by my own troubles, and been given a new perspective simply by listening to someone else's story. These simple suggestions will provide emotional strength, but what about spiritual strength? Where are those springs of salvation?

First of all, you can find them in the Bible. Reading the Bible is the number one well to draw water from when you are feeling the weight of trouble. In particular, read Psalm 4 (Answer me, O God, defender of my cause), Psalm 27 (The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom then shall I fear?), Psalm 42 (As the deer longs for the waterbrooks, so longs my soul for you, O God), Psalm 46 (God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble), Psalm 91 (He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High), Psalm 121 (I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come?), and Psalm130 (Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord). In particular, read St. Paul's second letter to Corinthians, the first six chapters, or his letter to the Philippians. Read any one of the Gospels, and listen to the words of Jesus as though he were speaking directly to you. Absorb the message of God's love and care for you, and recognize that Christ came to save you.

The second step in find spiritual strength is, of course, to spend time in prayer. Just as it is important to say directly to friends and family, "I need your support", so also it is important to say directly to God, "I need strength, I need courage, I need comfort, I need guidance." One of the most explicit instructions Jesus gives, is to ask God for what we need-ask just like a child who asks her parent for bread. Ask, seek, knock: God will respond. But once you have asked, then you must be silent, in mind and in heart. Listen quietly for the answer, which may come immediately, or it may come later in the day or the week. Prayer is similar to a conversation between two human beings-first one talks while the other listens, then the first one listens while the other talks. Remember that God may answer you directly or indirectly-God's strength may come to you through the words of a friend, or through music or poetry or the sunlight on red and yellow leaves.

The third step in finding spiritual strength is to choose to trust that God is at work in everything for good. Our lesson from Isaiah 65 is one of my favorites because it is a promise of well-being, peace and abundance for the whole creation. God intends the best for us-that all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well, as Dame Julian of Norwich says. Ten days ago on the morning our women's retreat was to start, our retreat leader called from Oregon to say that her flight to San Jose had been cancelled, and she would have to figure out another way to get here. I chose to trust that God intended for that retreat to happen. I didn't panic or even get anxious. I held onto trust, to faith-and she did arrive in time. The deepest spring of salvation, is the one from which we draw trust in God's presence with us.

Amen.