Depression, anxiety, hopelessness and despair are never easy to navigate and especially difficult to heal from when one feels isolated and alone. It is easy to feel, in valleys such as these, that you are the only one experiencing these feelings, these realities, but more and more the reality is that so many are dealing with an insurmountable wall of depression. In Church history, we haven't done a great job of affirming and validating folks who feel this darkness instead we have given poor advice like: chin up, Christians are not living in the full joy of Christ if they experience depression, perhaps you should pray more or maybe there is something faulty in your prayer life for you to be living with this depression and on and on... This hasn't created a very supportive environment for men and women to express their stories and pain.
