A picture of the heart

A human heart can be drawn out like a scale. One the left side, there is a box labeled "good". On the other side there is a box labeled "bad". We filter through our experiences throughout life and sort them in to these boxes. On a normal day, the scale is level and balanced. On a good day, the "good" box outweighs the "bad" box. Maybe something really awesome happened that day, or its a special day like your birthday. Whatever it is, you perceive it be a little more weighted, more substantial that the other hard things in life so it adds to the good side for a certain amount of time, however long it lasts. And, on a bad day, the opposite is true. The "bad" box is a little heavier. Maybe something tragic happened, or its been a series of unfortunate events, or its a sad day like the anniversary of a death or breakup. These are the days when one more small thing happens and everything kinda blows up because the scale was already pointed that way, it was just waiting to fall. But this is accepted, it makes sense, and things go back to normal eventually. Whatever it is, our emotions balance back and forth, tilting the scale one way or the other, but the scale is still standing, life goes on.

A depressed human heart looks similar -- a scale. However, next to the bad box on the right is this little dense steel cube called depression. It looks insignificant when compared to the sizes of the other boxes on the scale and certainly would not be expected to shift the scale too much. However, for some reason, this dense, heavy cube puts the scale in a downward slant with the right side pointing down and the left side pointing up. For a depressed person, this is a normal day. This is how they learn to live, cope, and even try to explain to others. An un level scale, a heart that is hard to balance. On a good day, it can become balanced, by filling the box with good experiences and by adding more boxes to outweigh the other side. These other boxes can be labeled therapy, medication, healthy coping mechanisms, or anything that seems to balance it out. So, on a good day, the scale is balanced. On the slightest bad day, however, even the smallest little box added to the right side of the scale can make the whole thing tilt so far to to right that the whole thing comes crashing down, all the boxes slide off, the scale falls apart, and all is in pieces. This is called the pit. This leads to anger, confusion, hopelessness, sadness and despair. This is when all seems lost, pointless, beyond repair. It appears to be an overreaction, the person is overly emotional or it is just a misunderstanding. But sometimes thats just how it goes, and people come in and have to help pick up all the pieces and put the whole thing back together. And the cycle continues. But the cycle is not a mistake, its not some random chance of events. The scales tip because God allows them tip. The pit exists because God allows it to exist. The cycle brings us closer to him.