This One's to You

Six years ago, I met a girl who changed my perspective on life.

And people.

Our encounter was brief in comparison to all of the people I've met since then. Our time together nothing more than a blip on my radar.We were quite the unlikely pair, she and I.

She, dressed in black from head to toe, hid beneath the hair always covering her face. I, dressed in whatever would cover me the most, hid beneath the face of perfection. She lived in the world where “numb” was the only available emotion; I lived in the world that never ran out of tears.

We didn’t meet in the most ideal of circumstances. In fact, we were both pretty much as far “rock bottom” as rock bottom can get.

I didn’t plan on talking to anyone there. With my face toward the white expanse and my chair back against the room, I was pretty much unapproachable.

She found me, nevertheless.

As she sat down at the table and turned her chair toward mine, I was already planning an excuse to hightail it out of there. There were “weirdos” here, and I wanted nothing to do with any of them. As I formulated my escape plan, she started talking to me.

“What are you doing?”

I’m pretty sure I looked at her like she was an idiot at this point. I mean, how much more obvious could staring at the wall be? Did I need to put up a sign saying, “Staring at Wall. Do Not Disturb”? Don’t worry though, I appeased her.

“Knitting a scarf, and-after lunch-I’ll be sewing mittens to match.”

It must have been my charm that encouraged her to keep on talking…because she did.

“Why are you here?”

“I have issues.”

She sat there for a moment and then said, “Yeah, me too.”

Wow. Shocker. All that time I had been thinking she was there on vacation.

She joined me at that table and never left. Every free moment, she sat there, sharing her story with me. As I listened to her life, I realized that she was not much different than me. Yes, the events were different. Deep down, however, she and I were cut from the same cloth. We both felt invisible in a big, scary world, and we both tried to gain the attention we craved any way we could.

“Sometimes I would give anything for someone to notice me.”

She told me this after showing me her scars. Scars that spoke of deep pain she couldn’t even name. Scars that cried out for attention. Scars that wanted to be seen and touched.

Scars that would never take the pain away.

I don’t remember her name. I didn’t keep the phone number that she stuffed in my hands before she left. I don’t even remember the school she told me she went to.

All I remember is her story and its theme.

She comes to my mind often. I pray that she has found some source of healthy attention, but parts of me doubt it. Statistics show that the majority of teens who leave the institutions of the world return worse than they came in. They have no hope. All they see is what they know, and what they know holds no hope.

So they end up back in the arms of institutions, hospitals, and-eventually-jails.

It’s really all so sad.

Her struggle is not so foreign. We all want to be noticed. We all want to be seen. None of us want to be invisible, so we gain the attention any way we can. Some of us act out, holding the belief that any attention is better than no attention at all. Some of us chase perfection, believing that it will fill all of our needs. Some of us cling in desperation to every person we know, terrified of that moment they decide we are not worthy enough to be seen. Some of us create hopeless situations that warrant the need of a savior.

And we wait and wait and wait for that savior to come…only he never does. The human hero will never be able to save you, no matter how fancy his hero cape.

There is hope, though. There is someone who sees you in the midst of your pain, and He’s waiting for you to stop chasing human heros and look to Him. He has His own scarred hands. Scars that speak of your pain. Scars that speak of your own hopelessness. Scars that speak of the victory He has won for you.

He bore your scars so you would have no need for your own.

The truth is, we all struggle with wanting to be seen. We all fear becoming invisible. Some of us just go farther for attention than others. Some of us go all the way to rock bottom, and those of us who have been there can testify that even rock bottom will not make a difference.

God sees you, no matter where you are.

Think of Hagar, the unseen woman who said of God, “You are the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:13). Think of David, who again and again thanked God for seeing him and rescuing him from the pit. Think of Paul, who lived with absolute assurance that God saw him and knew him. Think of Jesus, confident and secure in the knowledge that He was loved and seen by the Most High God.

My friend, you don’t have to battle for attention here on this earth. You don’t have to chase one image after another. All you have to do is rest in Him, for He sees you even from the darkest place.

I don’t know where she is today, but God knows. He sees her, and He feels her pain. Where I, as a human, could not heal her, He can. He can go in and heal her wounds from the inside out.

And He will.

Living Life with #NoFilter

 

 

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed the other day when I saw it.

A pregnancy announcement.

Again.

Lately it seems that all of our friends and acquaintances are moving on to that "next" phase in life. The baby phase. The phase that seems to move you from the plateau of "just married" to "you've finally arrived".

Or so it seems.

The funny thing about social media is that it makes you care about things you never cared about before. Jealousy and insecurity creep in through the posts of someone else's highlight reel. Doubt lingers as you compare your life to theirs.

"Am I where I'm supposed to be?"

"Should I be doing what they're doing?"

"How do I get from here to there?"

Vacation photos become aspirations. Self portraits become thieves of confidence. Job announcements become goals to attain.

In the margins between my screen and my life, I begin to write new goals. New dreams. New aspirations... because mine just don't seem to be "enough".

Life is summarized by pictures that are perfect and words that are poised, and - if we don't look hard enough - we'll fall for the façade.

We'll believe that our lives are significantly less. We'll begin measuring our day to day lives with the posts we see on Facebook and Instagram. We'll compare our ordinary and mundane with the highlights of someone else's life.

And we'll convince ourselves that that is what life is really like.

The highlights.

Life doesn't consist of just the highlights, though. It's full of highs, sure. But it's also full of lows and in-betweens. It's messy and scary and sometimes it falls short of our expectations.

Life cannot be summarized in a Facebook post. Life cannot be represented by a picture on Instagram. Life is meant to be lived. Authentically. Truthfully. Unfiltered.

Is social media bad? Not necessarily. It keeps us connected to friends and loved ones positioned all around the world. It allows us to celebrate the highs of life and come together for the lows. It inspires us. It propels us to move forward and do good things. It helps us spread our messages of hope.

When used correctly, it can become a beautiful avenue for living life authentically.

It's all in how you use it.

The problem with social media is not with social media itself. The problem is with us and how we receive what we see and what we read. Jealousy and discontentment are not byproducts of social media; they are byproducts of ourselves. They are the overflow of our doubts and insecurities, projected onto someone else.

When we learn to accept our lives for what they are, our perspectives will change. We won't be so focused on what everyone else is doing. Our value won't be determined by the milestones of somebody else. Our worth won't be tied to where we're positioned in the rat race of life.

And in that moment, it won't matter what anyone else is doing. It won't matter that your life hasn't turned out like everyone in your age group or graduation class. It won't matter that you're married or unmarried, with kids or without kids. It won't matter that you don't own a house or take vacations twice a year.

None of that will matter because you know that you are right where you are supposed to be.

Here.

Now.

Today.

And even an Earlybird filtered photo can't change that.