WHAT I’VE SEEN IN THE DARK: A Story of Depression and Faith
Audio of Dr. Powell’s testimony at Columbia International University on September 22, 2014. Used with permission.

LIKE FALLING RAIN 

(Poem written and read by Dr. Terry Powell at the end of the audio.)

My tears descend like falling rain.
Their constant flow reveals the pain
of much regret; of fragile heart.
I cannot stop them once they start.

With ev’ry drop there is an ache.
I did not know one’s heart could break
so many times in just one day.
Despondency won’t go away.

I shout! Yet God seems not to hear.
He leaves untouched my hurt, my fear.
Where is the God of Abraham?
Where’s El Shaddai? The great “I Am?”

Like falling rain hope, too, descends.
Are there not any dividends
to faith within the here and now?
Will God assist me? When? And How?

Does He not care when what I feel
makes dying grow in its appeal?
Though it’s racked by doubt, my mind turns
to God’s Word. Here is what it learns.

He gave His Spirit. He is near!
In time He’ll wipe away each tear.
Though I do not know how, or when,
My lips will smile and sing again.

Christ understands the tears I shed.
He also wept before He bled.
His cross absorbed His tears, and mine.
Heart-rending pain serves to refine.

God never acts except from love.
My darkness was designed above
For fruitfulness, and for my gain.
It’s grace outpoured, like falling rain.