A letter

Dear John,

I see you.
You’re here searching. You’re here to fill emptiness. You know something is missing, but you’ve never known what. It’s just this dull ache that never seems to leave. You have spent your days here trying desperately to get rid of that ache with alcohol and drugs and sex. Partying numbs the pain. Beautiful women surrounding you make you feel worthy. Drugs help you forget. When you come here you forget your insecurities and are just able to just live.
I see you.
You’re here to get a break from the real world that suffocates you every day. You’re here to escape the relationships that threaten to smother you and the job that sucks the life out of you. Your friends, successful and confident, exhaust you as you compare your subpar life to theirs. You are sure you’ll never measure up, but you could never tell them that.
I see you.
I see how you wake up each morning needing to fill that emptiness with something. The satisfaction that alcohol and women brought only lasted for a moment. It’s as though the night came and stole your confidence and joy, leaving you to continue in an endless cycle of pleasure at night and self loathing in the morning.
I see you.
I know you.
I know you desire a life of endless joy where you feel loved and appreciated and worthy. I know you wish your life could measure up without the expense of partying. I know you wish that thirst for a full life could be satiated.
It can.
God sees you.
In the moments when you are hopeless he has hope. In the moments you don’t measure up, he covers a multitude of failures. When you don’t feel loved and appreciated, through everything God’s love never changes.
He sees you.
God can be your best friend. He can be your father. He can be the one who won’t disappoint you. He can take that emptiness and fill it forever. He can be what you need, if you let him.
Stop running. Stop looking to imperfect solutions to your pain.
The perfect solution exists.
There is hope.
He sees you.

Sincerely,
A friend.