Every painful step is an opportunity for you to learn patience, to learn tolerance, to learn endurance, to develop your faith, to lean on Me, to take the next step when the next step seems scary or lonely or empty or pointless.

Depression is a thousand knives continually cutting at the fabric of the heart. It is the empty space of nothingness stretching mile after forsaken mile. It is darkness and despair and the endless echo of loneliness. It is oppressive and violent and vile. And yet there are ways of shining a light into that seemingly eternal darkness. There are ways to stop the deafening scream of emotional pain that shrieks in the inner ear of the depressed. Hope is available. Here’s the first step.