Words by The Message Translation (MSG)

Verse 1:2 (Among all … my enemies) and 3:22 (Your … ends!) by the New Living Translation (NLT)

Italics by author. Note from author: I have adjusted the pronouns into 'I' and 'my' so the song can be sung as a personal prayer.

Pain is a funny thing, isn't it? I mean, if you're anything like me, then you just want it to end the moment it starts. Same with sorrow, in my experience.

And still, there's beauty and wisdom to be found in pain and sorrow.

Before I gave my life to Papa, I lived and struggled with severe depression for more than 20 years. Sometimes it could last for 2 or 3 years on end. And in that period of time I couldn't remember what it was like to be happy, why I was even alive. It completely drained me.

God freed me from all that (watch my testimony). I don't believe God gives depression to anyone. But God can work through anything for good.

In retrospect, without the depression I probably would not have ended up making music. In those struggles I learned a lot about myself. I discovered my faults, my weaknesses, I learned to be compassionate, to be empathetic and it gave me a big love for the misfits. People and animals alike :)

But most people hide from the feelings or emotions in these sorrowful moments and deny themselves the chance to become a more complete human being.

You see, despair is tied strongly to hope.

Jeremiah knew that. However gruesome his circumstances and that of his people, Jerusalem and Israel, he knew AND reminded himself that God's faithful love never ends. He's not forgotten about you. But sometimes the sunrise takes a bit longer than we'd like.

Search for the glimmer of hope in whatever circumstances you find yourself in. It is there. And one day you'll look back and see the Hope that was there all along.

Lamentations starts off in the third person. But Jeremiah identifies himself with the pain of his people.

So, especially for those people in need of Hope, I've written these scriptures in the first person so you too can sing it as a personal prayer, to the One Who hears you and cares so, so deeply for you. Even if you don't see it right now, you will one day. Promise. His faithful love never ends.