what i need you to know

Life hasn't been easy for you.  I can see it in the way you carry yourself, I can hear it in the way that you talk.  You're always slaying dragons, always fighting back the demons.  Life throws you punch after punch and you  are trapped in this nightmare that is your reality.  I see you attempt to silence the voices, I watch them conquer you.  I don't even know you, really, but the darkness that defines your world breaks my heart.  

I have known so many like you.  Some of us are better at hiding it than others, but what so obviously defines you lurks in the dark corners of all of our souls.  

I need you to know that I don't have any easy answers for you.  Life is so complicated and hard and painful and alienating, and I haven't lived through half of the things you have.  The darkness you face every day is present in all of us, but for you it's even darker, and I'm so sorry.

I need you to know that Jesus is enough.  But more than that, I need you to know that Jesus loves you.  I know that's so trite, so simplistic, but I need you to know it all the same.  Jesus loves you, not because you fight all the demons in his name, not because you say the right words, not because you believe the right things.  Jesus loves you, not because you have managed to silence the voices, not because you have it all together.  He just loves you.  He loves you without condition.

Without condition.

I need you to know that Jesus' love is life and freedom.  His love has the power to silence the voices, to fight the demons, to loosen the bonds that hold you back from truly living.  His love is light and safety and acceptance.  He loves you because He made you.  He loves you because you are precious to Him independent of anything that you do or try to be.

You are loved.

Life isn't ever going to be easy.  It's always a struggle, always painful.  Jesus loves you, but you'll forget it...over and over and over again.  And in those forgetful moments, life will be overwhelming and scary and hard.  But your forgetfulness won't change his love.

His love never changes, never ends, never gives up.