Will You Speak to the Untold Hurt?

A woman stands crying on the side of the street. She hasn’t eaten yet today. The last food she had went to her little children. She hasn’t had a restful night of sleep in days. She stands, hunched over hoping that someone would offer a different response than “No.” Rejection echoes over and over. Why keep going? Why hope? Why live?

A man sits in the middle of a chapel hall. All around him people laugh and converse with each other. They already have their community. But not him. He is alone in the crowd. No one sees him. No one notices the tear beading in his eye. It’s true that he could reach out or take initiative. But he’s been turned down too many times before. Why keep going? Why hope? Why live?

A gentleman walks into his office building for work. His suit gives off an aura of importance. But he doesn’t feel that way. He wonders why he bothers to show up at all. It seems he’s only there to look busy. Will anyone ever give him a challenge? Will anyone ever recognize the gifts he has for the world? Probably not. He’ll sit at his computer, pretend to work for the day, go home, and prepare to do it all again tomorrow. Why keep going? Why hope? Why live?

A lady opens the mailbox. She’s been waiting for word on her graduate school application for weeks now. She reaches into the mailbox to pull out the small, solitary letter and reads the news. Her application was rejected. She wasn’t good enough to get in. She’s never good enough. Why keep going? Why hope? Why live?

***

story
untold, forgotten, abandoned, neglected, rejected, broken, shattered

Suffering is woven into the fabric of life. It is a part of the human experience. But the great tragedy is not the suffering, but that it is carried alone.

How many such stories lie hidden, abandoned, and rejected? How many people carry their burdens in silence, desperate for someone to hear them – longing for someone to see them?

This is our opportunity. We can reach out.

i see you
you are me
mtu ni watu
a person is people

The temptation in the face of someone else’s loneliness is to close up, to shield ourselves from the pain. Stepping out is uncomfortable and uncertain.

But what if we moved closer to the hurt? What if we dared to see the reflections of our wounds in the wounds of others? For though our experiences may be different, the feelings are the same.

I see you.

I know that you are hurting. I know your pain.

It’s OK. You are not alone.

And do you know what? There’s a road out of this place you are in. I’ve traveled that road.

Let me show you the way. Let me travel with you. Let me carry the load.

Together, we’ll make it through.

One of the greatest acts of love and compassion is to speak truth into the pain of another, to stand on behalf of their story, their untold burden. We can offer a glimmer of hope. We can begin the process of healing.

And in telling another that they are not alone, we remember that we are not alone either. We are all in this together.

story
untold, forgotten, abandoned, neglected, rejected, broken, shattered
i see you
you are me
mtu ni watu
a person is people

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