“Why, my soul, are you so downcast and discouraged? Why am I so sad? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (pp Ps. 43:5)
Kindhearted Father, I awoke concerned for friends living somewhere between mild melancholia and severe depression. To start with, thank you for rescuing me from simplistic views of depression. It’s not as simple a condition as I used to think. And thank you for validating the wide range of emotions we experience as your beloved, broken children as we live East of Eden and West of the new heaven and new earth?
David asked the right question in one of his seasons of heart-duress: “Why, my soul, are you downcast?” Better to ask that question before you than to ignore, minimize, self-diagnose, or medicate poorly. So, Father, what are various reasons for our feelings of disconnect, despair, and hopelessness?
For some of us, it’s as core of an issue as realizing we’ve gone to church all our lives but have yet to make it to Jesus. In time, nothing feels darker than a religious but grace-void life.
Others of us may be experiencing the “painful gift” of coming to our senses. We know you but have lived in self-exile from rich fellowship with you in a “faraway country” (Luke 15:13). It’s time to come home.
Others of us may need medical care first—not just more Bible reading and spiritual discipline. Whether we have a genetic predisposition, a change in our body chemistry through aging or trauma or are in a season of life-altering stress and loss—you don’t rebuke us for our feelings; you meet us right there.
No doubt that’s why David directed his heart to move towards you and anchor his hope in you. Father, you made us body, soul, and spirit and you know what we need at any given moment and crisis, and in every season of life as we journey Home. Lead each of us and help us be good friends to our friends struggling with palpable darkness. Help all of us steward our hard feelings and not simply try to get rid of them. Thank you, and So Very Amen.
