I'm sad. Not about one thing. About everything. And nothing.

Sadness without a cause is harder to carry than grief with one, because there is nothing to point at. David did not explain his either. He questioned it instead of obeying it, and he had to do that three times in a single psalm. Speaking to it is not pretending it away.

The conversation

The child: “Daddy God, I'm sad. Not about one thing. About everything. And nothing.”

God: “You don't have to explain it. David couldn't either. But he did something.”

The child: “What did he do?”

God: “'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?'”

God: “He questioned the sadness instead of obeying it.”

The child: “What if I can't make myself feel better?”

God: “I'm not asking you to feel better. Only to speak truth to it.”

God: “'As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul.'”

The child: “People tell me to cheer up. It makes it worse.”

God: “I never said cheer up. I said hope thou in God. Not the same.”

The child: “Will the sadness lift?”

God: “David asked that three times in one psalm. Three times he answered it.”

The child: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope thou in God.”

God: “There it is. Say it again tomorrow.”

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Psalm 42:11, KJV