Praying Through Depression
by J. Marshall Jenkins

My Lord God,

when the cares of the world
distract me from the gift of breath,
and my worries insist
they are as real as the moment’s pain,

when regrets come home
to crowd and clamor my memory,
and the future thins
and cramps my dreams,

when routine chores look like
ten years of tax returns,
and the long project that mobilized me
now leaves me in fragments,

when all that I accomplished
refuses to shake my hand,
and all my failures
offer to arrange a lonesome funeral,

when I lose faith in any welcome –
the other’s or mine –
and I cannot find a friend
in the mirror,

I kiss my life on its tender forehead,
lay it in a cradle, and together
we watch it sleep in the night,
for darkness is as light to you.

“…for darkness is as light to you” (Ps 139:12)

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4).

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Upper photo by Cherry Laithang on Unsplash, Public Domain.

Lower image by Vera Kratochvil on Public Domain Pictures.