-Brenna Reichart (poem by my daughter)

Jonah 2:2 — And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

Some fear where they will end up in the future, some fear what will happen to them when the pain is so numb in their mind and heart that they will crumble into the dirt of the ground.

Depression isn’t a choice or a state of mind, it’s a place where darkness is your only friend and where you can be in a room full of people but yet feel so deserted. It’s the puffiness and red shot of your eyes and the constant fear of death creeping through your mind. It’s a sorrow that is your neighbor and family. Your mind wanders as if time doesn’t exist and as if you don’t exist, because while everyone is moving on with their life your way too stuck into the past to even care. It’s the fear of denial that takes over your body and takes a point of desperation.

I now understand how Jonah felt, how he was stuck into the belly of a whale, isolated and alone in an unfamiliar darkness, scared and feeling desperate for someone to save him. I don’t think we understand that whenever we feel like we are in darkness that is when there is the most light in our life, its God’s presence that is there, he is next to you holding you while tears are running down your face and he is the protector of our soul.

Jonah was never alone in the whale’s belly but he was being protected and now he has a great story to tell and so do you.