The Shadow only wants you to see the never-ending pain before you, but the truth, however, is the same. After some time and some post-traumatic growth, we both can say, "Glad that light at the end of the tunnel wasn't a train!"

Depression isolates, alienates, and separates. It thrives in the darkness, severing connection for both the depressive and the depressive-adjacent ... And we indeed fell into a pit. But we didn't stay in that pit because we learned this valuable lesson--We don't heal in isolation but in community.

At 23, I had love figured out! As an English and German major in college, I had read the greats--Shakespeare, Goethe, Lord Byron, Fried, the Brownings, and so on .... As a Christian, I had read all the Bible said about love. I was steeped in the knowledge of love. My fiancée and I were in love and that was all we needed to make things work. Right! Right? Um ....

Life is a constant journey of twists and bends, ups and downs, ins and outs. We face struggles beyond our comprehension. Christian, don't face this journey alone! God, in His mercy, has provided His Presence, His Counselor, and His Power through His Holy Spirit. Let Him make your burden easy and your yoke light, as Jesus promised, and may you walk with Him daily. He is no magic button or genie-like figure; He is "a very present help in times of trouble."

It was only later that I realized my soon-to-be wife was already in the throes of her own system failure as she sank into clinical depression, and the physical darkness and booming silence of those eerie Mississippi nights would soon manifest into our lives when we married just two months later. However ..., I ... learned how to combat the darkness of depression's shadow. There are thirteen lessons I learned from living with dark. Lesson #1 is ....

The twin monsters of suicidal ideation can be dealt with through presence, purpose, perspective, and people.

Many of us find ourselves disappointed when God does not work with great displays of power, and we might wonder if He is even aware of our pain.

Prologue This is the story of one woman's 13-year struggle to come to grips with God, faith, and depression. Gossamer and Bugs Bunny The Shadow . . . When we last left Elijah ( Combatting the Shadow of Depression ), he was standing in the awe-inspiring presence of God and complaining. Now, I understand that complaining to God is a fairly normal human response. But this complaining occurs AFTER God has shown Elijah various manifestations of His power! Generally, we humans a

Prologue: A Journey Through Darkness and Light This is the story of one woman's 13-year struggle to come to grips with God, faith, and depression. The Shadow of the Valley of Death Depression is a strange beast. It can creep in slowly or strike like lightning. Often, those who suffer may not even realize their perception of reality has shifted. It reminds me of the infamous frog in warm water, blissfully unaware of the slowly rising temperature until it's too late! Similarly,

While God doesn't promise to shortcut the journey, He does promise to strengthen us IN our journey.

Muscle memory movements are stored in the cerebellum, ready to activate when needed. How do we store spiritual muscle memory? We build spiritual muscle memory by engaging Scripture, the mind, and an action-reflection model of living until the movements become HABIT.

Depression is a strange, new world of darkness and isolation which grays out and reshapes each of life's varied experiences, dragging them all down to the same level of emptiness.

With depression, there is no generally no forewarning or opportunity to prepare oneself or one's loved ones for what is happening or about to happen. The rabbit hole appears and the slide begins, with no indication of what lies on the other side.

This is the story of one woman's 13-year struggle to come to grips with God, faith, and depression.

In the Beginning CRASH ! The glass measuring cup dropped from Jennifer’s hand and shattered into a thousand, glittering pieces across the floor. Unable to cope with this loss and overcome by grief and rage, she rushed into the late afternoon air, slamming the door and leaving behind her husband, her infant daughter, and her life, and found herself face-to-face with who she had become—purposeless, directionless, boiling over with rage and despair. Meanwhile, buried in my se