You are seen, you are known, you ... are loved.

I have a friend who … always seems to be down in the dumps. You know what I'm talking about? He isn't in a bad mood - he isn't crabby - but it just seems like … he has no joy. Nothing lifts him up. He always seems to be sad and depressed. Maybe you know someone like that. Maybe … maybe you feel like that. I've never really talked to him too much about it but one time when we were hanging out I got kind of annoyed. I told him, "Just try thinking positively. Stop being so negative all the time." And he said, … "I've tried. I can't do it." And that hit me. It's stuck with me ever since. When I heard it, I thought, "really? What's wrong with this guy?" But eventually, as happens to all of us, I went through a really hard time. I felt depressed. I would cry. I would wonder what the heck God was doing. What would I have done if one of my friends said, "dude, just think positively?" I would've been hurt. I would've wondered, "do they know what I'm going through? Do they know how much it hurts? Do they even care?" … To be seen, to be known, and to be loved, is what our heart desires.

The thing is, hard times don't create these desires; they only darken our hearts so much that we can't cover up or ignore our longings anymore. The inner darkness of desolation forces us to look inside and reveals the black hole that already looms there. The black hole we've been trying our whole lives to fill or to ignore, but that just keeps eating away at us and those around us.

When things get darkest we ask the deep, vulnerable questions that we have been scared to ask, that we have been running away from. And from the depths of our hearts we cry out "Does anyone see me?" … Then we hear a deep, gentle Voice say "When you were under tree, I saw you." Recognizing the Voice, we protest saying, "God, you don't even know me." "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. I have called you by name, you are Mine." "God, You don't love me!" "Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither things present nor things to come, neither powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from My love. For I, your Father, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you 'Fear not, I will help you.' I will clean you from all your sins. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will give you My Spirit. I will give you My Son.”

You are seen, you are known, you ... are loved.