I think there’s something really powerful about being able to tell someone, “I understand,” because you actually do.

Not because you read about it.
Not because someone told you what it’s like.
But because you’ve sat in that place yourself.

I’ve had moments in my own life where I’ve wondered why I had to experience certain things. And honestly, I still don’t have an answer for everything. But maybe I don’t need one.

Maybe some things we go through aren’t meant to only change us.

Maybe they’re also meant to give us something we can eventually give to someone else.

The pain we survived can teach us compassion.

The prayers we cried can teach us how to sit with someone else’s unanswered prayer.

And the moments when God carried us can help us remind someone else that they won’t always feel like this.

We don’t have to pretend our painful seasons were good.

But we can believe that God can still bring something good from them.

So maybe your story isn’t finished just because you’ve made it through that chapter.

Maybe someone else’s story is going to be helped by the fact that you did.