This is what I lived.
It was dark for a long time and I didn’t see anything that showed me that God was listening or that he even existed. Then after I figured out God is real and he’s good, I fought depression off and on for almost 40 years. I couldn’t necessarily see what God was doing with that, and honestly, through a lot of it, I didn’t even realize that the reality I lived in was depression. It was just my life. At times, I couldn’t say for sure if God was involved in my mess, if he loved me or if he was with me.
Now that I can see more clearly, I can see the bigger picture. You know what it is like when you climb up out of a valley on a hike? When you start walking, you only see what is around you, the leaves on the trees nearby, an anthill, dandelions, and the gravel or tree roots in the path.
But once you have climbed far enough, assuming there are no trees to block the way, you can see a long, long way. The next ridge, the middle view, the distance, the sky–all of it. You now know what you couldn’t see or comprehend before. The entire time you were climbing upward, it wasn’t just the bog around you or the barren field, not just the localized flora, fauna or pain–there was a panoramic view. You grasp for the first time just how massive the back of the world you ride is. You contemplate what travels and travails you have sojourned through. You see that you were not, after all, alone.
Once you’re walking free of the fog, you know the great lion was pacing at your side the entire way.
Joy in the Journey 