When Hope Isn't Fluffy

I’ve already heard people criticize @nfrealmusic new album, saying that he should have been more hopeful and positive. As someone who has been battling for mental health the past year and walked closely with others struggling with OCD, depression, anxiety, and the like, I can tell you...

This album is FULL of hope for those who are struggling. Full. Of. It. I almost cried at least three times as I listened through. For myself, for the friends who are struggling, for the reality that I’m not the only one.

You see, hope can come in all forms. Hope is not just fluffy pink bunnies and sunshine. Hope can be gritty and rough and a single beam of light hitting the back wall of the deep, gross, seemingly bottomless cave we find ourselves in. We follow it, up and down, over rocks, gaining ground, then sliding off cliffs. We lose sight of the beam for a while, but we keep struggling in the direction we last saw it. And eventually, we find it again.

Finding true and deep internal peace in Christ can be an ugly and painful process, and maybe if your life has only been rainbows and butterflies you won’t recognize hope sprouting up when it’s born out of pain.

But believe me, it’s there.

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