For those of you looking around at the success of others and wonder when your lucky break will come…

For those who search the Facebook images of smiling, happy people leading flawless lives, and feel small, smaller, smallest…

For those who toil unseen, worrying that your work is unnoticed and unapplauded…

For those aching inside fearing the best has past you by and your future looks bleak…

For those who envy…

For those who try to pry open doors that remain locked…

For those who fret that God takes no notice…

For those who are tempted to withdraw from the world because it hurts too much…

For those who battle obscurity…

I offer empathy.

Because I have felt these things. I don’t have a fancy formula to pull you from these kinds of dark, empty places. It’s more like scraping and scrapping and making yourself cling to the truth of God’s goodness when that quality seems distant.

And yet, God is good.

He doesn’t call us all to wild success 100% of the time. He doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we’d wish he would. He doesn’t bend to our need to control things. He doesn’t always heal. Sometimes the bad guy wins, and wins big.

But in the retrospective air of heaven, we will understand this truth: the rocky path refined gold in our souls. The flailing fostered faith. The hopelessness heralded a new kind of hope you can’t see. The thwarting thickened our character.

Take heart, you who struggle, you who feel life’s passed you by, who are crushed by a broken relationship or a dashed dream. You are seen.

Blessedly so.

Hang on for dear life, friend. Hold fast to the One who flung the world into existence, the one whose plan is 99% mystery. He has this. He holds you. He hopes for you. He heals broken parts. He is present.

And you are loved.

Don’t compare someone else’s perceived abundance to your perceived lack. It’s a comparison game you’ll never win. It poisons your feelings toward others and emaciates your soul. It blinds you to what God has done even in the tiny moments. Instead, number your blessings, count the joys, revel in the beauty of a heartbeat and breath right now.

Beat and breath are proof that God isn’t finished with his plan yet. Be courageous enough to stand still and wait.