Acceptance

You are not alone here.

One of the few things we all have in common is a sense that something is off, whether it is in the small-scale details or the overarching stories of our lives and the world in which we live.

There is pain. No matter how it came about, it’s there. No matter whether it is on the surface and apparent or hidden in the depths, it’s there. No matter if it’s an afterthought most of the time or it steals all your attention day in and day out, it’s there.

Sometimes it’s our own fault, and sometimes it isn’t.

The way it happens and what it looks like don’t really matter much.

What matters is the way we deal with it and that we deal with it at all.

We can deny the pain, but we have to accept the reality of it in order to find hope beyond it.

Even if hope is hard to sense, it is written upon a world still prevailing against the pain.

Surely that is a sign that there is a purpose that lies beyond the pain.

Surely that means that if we were put here, it wasn’t for nothing.

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I want you to know that there is hope beyond what you are feeling right now.

I want you to know that you are loved regardless of what you can see or hear or feel.

I want you to know that you can believe in something better.

This is my journey through doubting to faith, through despair to hope, and I want you to join me, even if it’s not the whole way.

Jesus loves you, and in him, you will find acceptance.