It’s been a harsh week on social media. I have literally seen so many hateful things in my newsfeed and even on my own wall that I am struggling with depression.

Apparently everyone is an expert in parenting, zoology and public safety. It’s also possible that people mindlessly troll feeds on Facebook and comment on the comments without reading the actual story. They spew hateful, even vulgar comments without conscience.

We are beginning a new month. Summer is right around the corner.My coworker just had the most difficult four months of her life. She announced that today is a reboot – she’s doing a hard restart of this year. I think she may be on to something.

I make my living doing software support. It’s astonishing the number of times that my only solution to a frustrated client has been a system reboot. None of the suggested solutions was working and there was nothing in the Knowledge Base specific to the “stuck” application. Remarkably, rebooting clears up most of those problems.

I find myself in a similar stuck place emotionally and spiritually today – tired, depressed and a little disillusioned by life. I don’t know of any fixes specific to this feeling of hopeless fatigue.

In spite of that, I’m embarking on a study of the Psalms for the summer. I’ve got a plan to read, write out and commit some verses to memory.

Psalm 1, verse 1 – literally at the very start, of the very day that I ask God for a reboot, he reveals his plan for restoring my sad heart. It’s right there in the  Knowledge Base:

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or
stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers.
Psalm 1:1-3 – NIV

Blessed is a stronger word than happy; it means enjoying God’s grace and favor. The blessed person avoids the natural progression to spiritual burnout spelled out in the very first verse of this very first psalm.

Don’t walk, stand or sit with the foolish. Those are the people who spout words with feigned authority and disregard God and his sovereignty. Sound familiar?

The blessed person finds delight in God’s word. While it can also be cutting, its purpose is always for good:

Everything in the Scriptures is God’s Word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. – 2 Timothy 3:6 (CEV)

I love the image in the third verse of Psalm 1 of a tree planted near water. It is naturally provided all that it needs to flourish, grow and produce fruit.

When a computer is rebooted, all current processes are shut down. Programs relinquish cached memory; it is basically dumping all of the junk and starting fresh.

Reboot it is. I need to free up some space on my calendar and in my heart; I need to dump some junk to make time for a dip into living water. It’s my only hope for survival this hot summer.

Haters gonna hate. But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. (Psalm 3:3-4)

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