I am not prone to depression, but I am related to people who are. That is not to say that I haven’t had times of despondency related to situation, but I that I understand how for some, depression or seasons—long seasons—of being in the low are a part of life.
No one wants to be in the low.
In January 2024 Global Trellis conducted a survey asking people on field what they worried could jeopardize them being on the field. Out of the eleven areas reported, mental and emotional health were in the top three. (You can read the full report here.) Though mental and emotional health involve more than depression, what can you do instead of hiding your true state or pressing through in those seasons of what author Justin McRoberts and illustrator Scott Erickson call “the low?”
Their recent book In the Low: Honest Prayers for Dark Seasons is a welcome companion for those seasons. The book is divided into five sections with each section beginning with a short essay and then prayers and art related to that area.
The five sections are:
—Reconnecting to Where I am Today
—Reconnecting to What Happened to Me
—Reconnecting to What I am a Part of
—Reconnecting to What I Value
—Reconnecting to What is Ahead of Me
Here are two sample prayers. I love how each prayer includes an illustration (really a piece of art) to meditate on. When you are in the low it is hard to read long passages and concentrate, so bit sized words with an image to linger on, feels doable.
Whether you are prone to depression or not, this book is one that you should get now, before you’re in the low. We’re all going to be there at some point, how better to honor our humanness than to be prepared for it with resources that respect the reality and help connect us to God.
And if you’re in leadership or member care? This book needs to be added to your toolbox. Not “consider adding it”; add it.
As Curt Thompson said on the back of the book, “With In the Low, Scott Erickson and Justin McRoberts have offered the world an artifact of beauty and brevity, ushering us into that chambers of our interior lives that God has occupied from before the foundation of the world.”
