Looking Backwards...

In May I put up this post. I asked you all to pray, because I was going to step way outside of my comfort zone and speak at a youth retreat. To be honest, I never wanted to speak. I campaigned to bring in a friend of mine to do the speaking, but the guy I was working with for the youth at that time insisted that the two of us do the speaking.

As I prepared to speak, I felt God prompting me to share with the kids that I had suffered for so many years from depression, had been suicidal, and then encountered the powerful healing of Christ. I didn't know why I needed to say those things at the time. They opened up a couple of conversations (I wrote about that here), but didn't seem to make sense. It was a weird context to talk about it in. Most of these kids I'd known their whole lives, and they would have had no idea that I'd been experiencing those things.

I got a little glimpse this week of why I shared those things all those months ago. I sat and had coffee with a young friend, and because I'd said those things all those months ago, she opened her life to me, and gave me a glimpse of the pain underneath the smooth exterior. I feel privileged that she felt safe enough to share with me.

Pray for me as I begin to walk alongside her. Pray for her as she wades through some deep and painful things this next while.

It helps to understand, now, why I spoke those things all those months ago. I needed that tiny glimpse of the bigger picture this week.