Episode overview
In this session, Cliff Preston speaks candidly about anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts through the lens of faith, lived experience, and songwriting.
At the heart of the session is a simple but powerful truth: there is no such thing as hopeless. Cliff explains that hope is not a feeling or a circumstance, but a person — Jesus — and as long as He exists, hope is present, even when it feels impossibly far away.
Cliff reflects on how some of the lowest moments in life are not places of abandonment, but places where rescue is closer than we realize. Drawing from years of speaking openly about mental health in churches and communities, he addresses the isolation, shame, and silence that often surround depression and anxiety, and how those struggles tend to grow when they remain hidden.
The session also explores the story behind Cliff’s song “No Such Thing,” written during an ongoing season of personal struggle. He shares how songwriting became part of his healing process, and how God later used that song to bring hope to others long after it was written.
Cliff emphasizes the importance of seeking help and speaking honestly about mental health, recognizing and rejecting harmful spiritualized lies around suffering and understanding that healing is often a process, not a moment.
He encourages us to share our stories so others know they are not alone.
The session reminds us that we are seen, loved, and not beyond rescue.
Hope is closer than it feels.
Story behind the song
The song, "No Such Thing", was written during the same time when Cliff Preston was carrying the weight of anxiety, depression, and deep personal uncertainty himself.
At the time, Cliff had left his hometown and gone to Tennessee, as many musicians do, pursuing a career. He was wrestling with who he was supposed to be — as a believer, a husband, a father, a writer, an artist — all while navigating the quiet pressure of mental health struggles.
In that season, his friend and him were writing songs together. Cliff felt like an outsider — like a fraud — walking into rooms he didn’t feel qualified to be in. What he didn’t realize then was that discomfort was not a sign of failure, but evidence of God's grace at work.
During that same period, a pastor preached a sermon built around a simple but life-altering sentence: “There is no such thing as hopeless.” Hope, he realized, isn’t a feeling that comes and goes. Hope is a person. And as long as Jesus exists — which He always has and always will — hope is present, even when it feels unreachable.
No Such Thing became a kind of lifeline — something Cliff played for himself as a healing mechanism while he was still battling anxiety, depression, and the lies that tend to surface in those moments. Lies like: you’re alone, you’ve failed, there’s no way out, or even the spiritualized lie that giving up might somehow be holy.
The song pushed back against those lies with truth: that the bottom isn’t where hope ends, but often where rescue begins; that love is waiting; that emptiness isn’t final; that giving up isn’t the answer.
Over time, something unexpected happened. What began as a deeply personal song slowly became a gift to others. God started using No Such Thing in ways Cliff never could have planned, in people’s lives he would never meet, long after the song was written.
God doesn’t waste suffering. When we allow Him to, He takes what was meant to isolate us and turns it into something that brings healing — not just for us, but for others.
As long as Jesus exists, there is no such thing as hopeless.
Notes & reflection
- Where have you experienced a song as a healing power?
- Why do you think Cliff say that there is no such thing as hopeless?
- Who might you know around you that might be suffering and why do you think there is a fear to about it?
- How can you share hope with someone who is struggling with anxiety or depression?
