I wanted to share once quick story. This fruit is your fruit.

For most of my life, I have felt stuck in a cycle of melancholy/discouragement. My case is not the most extreme, but it’s definitely been a pattern for a long time. I’ve been able to recognize it for almost just as long, but even when I have recognized it and prayed, I have experienced little breakthrough. I’ll be doing fine, and then I’ll get this foreboding sense that I’m climbing out on a limb and, at any moment, the limb will snap. I usually feel pretty awful before that feeling lifts as mysteriously as it came upon me. After we gathered and some friends prayed for us, something awesome happened. About a week and a half later I was feeling the onset of an “episode.” I talked to my wife about it, and she simply asked me, “What are those lies you’re believing about yourself?” Sitting in my living room I responded, “That I’m la…la… lay…lay—zee…” And CRACK, right then, I began laughing harder that I thought possible, tears streaming down my face, my stomach muscles cramping from the intensity. And five minutes later, that was it. I was finished. No fear of the limb breaking. No source-less discouragement. No foreboding sense of will-less-ness. No lies about me being lazy or inconsistent. I just laughed it away, then I got up, went about my day, sat down to study (something I could never do if I were struggling with an “episode”), and refused from that day on to walk under the influence of those silly lies. Amazing! I’m going on a number of weeks now walking in new freedom. As I said, amazing! The joy of the Father has cracked the darkness, and I cannot walk unhappily anymore!