Letter to a Friend, a Personal Testimony

This friend had a post stating she was depressed. I had first replied that I was sorry she was depressed, and I cared about her, and not to be the definition of insane: repeating the same pattern but expecting different results. I then proceeded to write the following letter to her:

I don't know what may be happening in your life right now, but I know what it is like to be depressed. I am sorry that you are sad right now about things. I have had to go through alot, and know that I will have to go through alot more before my life is over, but I am finally REALLY happy with where my life is right now. That doesn't mean it's perfect, by any means, it just means that I have found purpose. I too, wanted a different result and had to be the change to get a change. I have changed but I know I am not all the way there yet. I have had to change just about everything IN ME, but it is helping me become a person that I enjoy being. Now, I don't think that I was a bad person before, but I also really wasn't the person that I wanted to be. Now I know this is gonna sound crazy but please read the rest with a completely open mind and heart.... After I came back from Florida (which is a whole other conversation but really is how I was able to start changing), my husband and I started going to church, Church on the Hill. Now, my husband hasn't ever been a "church" person, I was always open to it. But he was the one who wanted to go, so of course I went too. This is NOT your typical traditional church for sure. They don't have crazy snakes or anything like that but they do allow you to be YOU and come as you are. When we went I felt awkward at first, but that was because I already had stereotyped all the churches around here. But as we MADE ourselves make that a part of our routine, like taking a shower I realized that we were accepted as we were. They weren't "vultures" they weren't better than me, they were just accepting. I have learned so much. I wasn't raised in any church or a church family or anything. I am not better than anyone else, other than the person I used to be, I am NOT perfect, I screw up daily, sometimes hourly...sometimes seems like all the time. But I finally found a place that still accepts me, screw ups and all! It has helped me think about things differently, it has helped me do things differently (again I still mess up). I used to think that church was a place for a group of holy roller hypocrites to meet to basically gossip and build themselves up to think they were better than anyone else. Unfortunately that is true of so many churches I have went to or people I know that say they are Christians. But this church is different. Even Jason, he said that Church on the Hill is home, that when he enters he says to himself, "ah, finally, this is home". The transformation in him and me and our marriage has been incredible. Now some may say I got "religion" or I am a "holy roller"; religion is not what I am or want,  to me too many people have religion, but that is it, all they have is a belief in  God, a routine of going to church every Sunday, and that's it. This started as a decision to make ourselves go to church, but it wasn't long before it became less of just a routine and more about a life change. I have met so many there that were discriminated against at other churches and here they have a place to be themselves. Even the pastor will say that church is great, that it is important to surround yourself with other believers, but if all you have is church then that's not much help. He says that church is not the door to heaven, only Jesus is. He puts things in such a way that it is like "duh, why didn’t I get that before”. Anyway, I am not trying to sound like I am preaching to you; I just wanted to share some of my story with you and how I was able to start changing. A person may try to force you to go to church, but I agree with the pastor, that alone wouldn’t do anyone a bit of good. So, with that being said, you are always welcome to come to church there (or anywhere of course), but I am still here as your friend and care for you whether you ever go to church or not. I just don’t do all the activities that I used to do.