Dear Hurting Friend,
I see you.
I see your grief filled pins and statuses. They are your public ways of crying. Sometimes they are quiet sighs and sometimes they are sobs. Social Media is a pro at giving us highlights of you – and your highlights say you’re in pain. Every day, at any given moment these issues and regrets fill you. Even though you think that no one sees the tears your smile is hiding, I see them.
You think that what you are feeling no one else understands but you’re wrong. “Alone” is a hopeless feeling. If you were to only meet the millions of others who have fought this same battle and won- you wouldn’t feel so alone. Find those people and ask them how they healed, then make it happen in you. Because I hate seeing you like this.
Now, they can’t tell you how to heal or how long it should take, each person’s journey is unique. But, they can tell you that healing is possible and how they did it. They can give you that hope that you can’t seem to find right now.
I can’t tell you how to heal. But I can tell you that holding on to the pain as tight as you are makes healing take longer. You’ve forgotten that you haven’t lost everything. You feel that you have, but you haven’t. And even if after opening your eyes to those around you – you don’t see one of them that truly loves you. Hold out your hand and use your hurt to love someone else who hurts.
They say that pain makes us wiser and pain makes us grow but that isn’t the whole truth. That is the sometimes truth. Pain will either help you grow or it will destroy you and only you can make the decision as to which path it will take. The decision is made every minute, every day. When you choose them over you. When you choose peace over discontentment. When you choose to be happy. When you choose to love something or someone else even though you thought your heart couldn’t take anymore.
Our Father is the Comforter, the Prince of Peace. He offers us rest and peace but, it appears that maybe you’ve forgotten that. You’ve forgotten that beautifulness that is His peace. You see, His peace doesn’t depend on your circumstances. His Peace is constant, unchanging. His peace is the knowing that you are His and he loves you more. That everything that is happening- He can handle. Maybe you can’t handle it, but He can. He saw it coming, He let it happen, He sees the YOU He is trying to mold you to be. Right now you see the storm… but he sees the calm on the other side. He sees the masterpiece that is your life if you let Him continue painting. Even if those strokes cause you pain.
Let Him mold you, rest in Him. Give Him your pain- He feels it anyway. Even though you think that no one sees the tears your smile is hiding, He sees them. Trust that He knows the way to the other side and just follow Him there.
And, My Dear Hurting Friend, if I could see you face to face this is what I would tell you.