I almost didn’t post today.
It’s been a rough week. For a variety of reasons, I’ve been struggling with depression and anxiety symptoms this week.
It’s amazing how quickly I can forget what this kind of suffering feels like. Yet I’m also amazed at how familiar it feels. Like putting on a well-worn pair of jeans.
Everything feels tainted. My thoughts, my words, my attitude, my daily comings and goings are all as if they’ve been cast in shadow. Everything seems dark, hope seems elusive, and I just can’t see through the fog.
I’ve been having trouble concentrating and am highly unmotivated. Needless to say, my quiet times require a valiant effort that I just don’t have the energy for.
But God, in His goodness and mercy, still speaks into the darkness. As I was getting myself ready this morning, a song came on that quieted my anxious heart, if only for a moment.
I was listening to Keith and Kristyn Getty’s song “Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed” and it was this part that struck me:
Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!
Oh, sing Hallelujah
Join the chorus, sing with the redeemed
Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!
He’s alive! He’s alive!
He’s alive! He’s alive!
Heaven’s gates are open wide
He’s alive! He’s alive!
He’s alive! He’s alive!
Now in heaven, glorified
He’s alive!
It was hearing just those two words that brought peace to my weary heart: He’s alive!
This is why it is so important that I daily, each and every moment, remember the gospel and preach it to myself.
Because I need to be awakened to reality.
Depression and anxiety are not, and never will be, my permanent reality.
My one permanent reality is this: He’s alive!
Christ did not stay dead. He rose again and conquered sin, death, and suffering, including that with which I am currently struggling.
Christ is not dead, but one day my depression and anxiety will die. And it will stay dead. Forever.
So today, when my brain feels foggy, and when things seem much darker than usual, when I can’t read my Bible or find the right words to pray…
I cling to the two words of my one permanent reality: He’s alive!
And suddenly, a light shines in the darkness.
Do you need gentle reminders of your permanent reality too? Click the image below for a free printable reminder of the truth of Christ’s resurrection:
