Dear Overwhelmed & Underheard,

WORDS | SAMMY MULL
ARTWORK | JANETTE DOMINGUEZ

I wish I could buy you coffee (probably a pumpkin spice latte, because I love you that much) and hear the depths of you. I want to hear about your triumphs and your defeats, your “happies” and your “crappies.” I want to know the things that are breathing life into your world this week and the corners of your heart that feel broken.

I see it. The “how’s life?” text from a week ago that you haven’t yet answered because you just aren’t sure how to respond. That sparkly white smile you tried on this afternoon when you ran into an old friend: the smile you have painstakingly manufactured for just such an occasion. That deep longing to answer honestly when people ask how your heart is doing, but the inability to do so for fear they will think you jumped aboard the crazy train.

I’ll let you in on a secret: We are all aboard the crazy train. And it is quickly pulling out of the station.

How silly to think of all mankind sitting on a train, each pretending not to be on the train for fear that others will find out that he or she is, in fact, on the train. Yet this is the reality in which we imprison ourselves.

We are on this journey together, so find someone to ride with you. Find a friend who will share your seat, look you straight in the face, ask you how you are, and mean it. A friend that will sit in that seat and stay with you until you have reached your destination.

Dear One, stop waiting. Whatever relationships— romantic or otherwise— you are waiting on in this life; they are but a mere reflection of the intimate connection we are meant to experience with El Roi, the God who sees. Whatever circumstances you have been deceived into believing

will deliver you from the exile of your own restlessness; they are nothing compared to the freedom in which He has already called you to walk.

What are you relying on to be your little “s” savior today? What is it that you think will rescue you from the discontentment that has set up camp in your soul? If it is anything short of Jesus, then your hope is built on the wrong foundation. When no one else sees you, He sees you. When no one else hears you, He hears you. When no one else knows your pain, He enters it with you. You are not invisible. You are not forgotten.

Will you ride the train with me? It’s going to be a long journey, and I saved you a seat.

Sincerely,
Kindred