Was there a time in your life where you desperately needed encouragement but didn’t get it?
A time when you felt so alone and longed to hear someone else say, “I’ve been there, too” but never found that person?
A time when it felt unseen, unheard, or misunderstood?
I think we’ve all been there.
Divorce.
Infertility.
Abandonment.
Mental health issues.
Spiritual battles.
Grief or loss.
Maybe you’ve walked through some of these things. Maybe you know exactly what this loneliness feels like.
The thing is.. we can make purpose out of the pain we experience.
We can be the person we wish we had, to someone else.
The hard times we walked through, the times we felt so alone…
They give us insight into other people we encounter who may be going through similar things.
Because of what we went through, we have the capacity to hold space for them. We have the ability to truly empathize.
We can look them in the eyes and tell them we get it, we have been there, and we have also grown from it.
We can be a source of hope. If we walked through the storm, they can too.
But they will walk through it with someone who gets it. Someone they can lean on as the wind tries to knock them down.
Our own pain can actually be used for someone else’s comfort.
In that sense, what we went through doesn’t go in vain.
Because someone else might need it.
Someone else might need someone who’s been there, done that.
I know you wish you didn’t have to go through that time. I wish that for you, too.
But since you have, maybe you’ll be an incredible blessing to someone else in the future.
A light in the dark.
If you want to make purpose out of your pain…
Be the person you wished you had.