For The Person Who Feels Too Much...

Oh, how I wish someone would've told me years ago what I'm about to tell you now. Every word spoken here is only meant to spare you pain in the days, months and years to come.  

Let me begin by saying that you are special and you are loved.  That may not be the way YOU feel about you now.  Instead, maybe you've believed that you are small, unimportant and less than those around you.  Perhaps you have learned to fit in by holding back.  Or maybe you've tried hard but it still doesn't feel like enough.

I wish I could take you by the hand, get close, and look into your eyes.  I would say it a hundred times just to make sure you believe--just because someone else doesn't see the light in you, doesn't mean it isn't there.  What if I were to tell you that God has chosen YOU?  Yes, you.  Because he has heard the cry of your heart and he knows all you've gone through.   He knows you have no idea the value of your soul--that the angels literally hold their breath when they look at you--because you, well, you are prized and treasured by God Himself--made in His very image--and set at this exact time in history for a purpose. The angels were there the day you entered the world and there was great celebration, b/c God himself was in that room cheering and jumping for joy.  Yes.  That is who you are in heaven's eyes.  You are celebrated.  You are His!

And you were born into a world at war.  The years have been hard and dark and heavy, a personal assault intended to break you.  Darkness knows that if you knew who you really were, you'd be dangerous--you might decide to shine.  

What if I were to tell you that every single person around you is broken?  Every one.  And this fact means two things for you:

1. You aren't unique in the brokenness you feel.  You actually AREN'T less or more than anyone else.  You and all of humanity are all equally screwy!  ;)

1. Insults, ignorance, and flat out rejection from others has much more to do with their own stuff than it does with you.  Who can know the tangles of another's brokenness?  You don't even yet know your own.  But can I tell you something?  It's NOT your fault.  Other people's behavior is THEIRS, and it is not your responsibility to carry how and why others act the way they do.  You are only responsible for your own behavior.  

Can I tell you the one secret that will make all the difference from here forward?  The really good news?

God cares when you're hurt.  God cares when you're sad.  God cares when you're mad, embarrassed, and all the other feelings you're ashamed you feel. Not one second of your precious life goes by unnoticed by Him.  LET Him minister His care and concern to you.  LET him heal you when you are wounded.  

How?

Take all of those feelings to Him.  He does not expect you to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and work harder.  He WILL MAKE YOU STRONG AND COURAGEOUS, but you must go to Him with the wounds first.  You tell Him all about it.  In the quiet.  Between Him and you.  You talk to Him about it more than you talk to anyone else about it.  You share the hurt and the pain, then you ask Him what he thinks of you, of the situation.  You choose to trust Him with your pain.  And you trust Him to take care of you and handle it.

And something beautiful will happen as you do.  You will no longer be walking wounded.  You will be walking healed. You will no longer walk empty, you will walk full.  And you will be used to fill others and be part of His redemption as a result.

Dear person who feels too much--if you can rely on daily hearing from Him--daily letting Him remind you of who you are, then there will be NO mountain you can't climb.  There will be NO hurdle you can't jump.  You will find health and wholeness and life--not because you are striving and jumping--but because you will live out of who you really are--your truest identity--who GOD Almighty says you are--not what other people say.  

You do NOT feel too much.  You feel just right.  And everyone feels the same--others may do a better job at hiding it than you, but everyone is actually after the same thing--love and acceptance.  And you are WILDLY accepted, WILDLY cherished, WILDLY loved.  Once you know this about yourself, you will be able to pour it out to others with ease.  And can I tell you another secret?  They are just as desperate to know they are loved as you are!  

Start now.  You don't have to wait even one second.  Tell Him what's been on your mind.  Ask Him who He says you are.  Then believe it.  Then live it.  Go be the beautiful person God created you to be.  Because if you do, hand in hand with Him, you will find yourself in the midst of a great adventure, custom fit just for you from the beginning of time.  This world is so dark, but you will be a bearer of Light.

The waiting world is watching and hoping that you will be you!