I first felt it when I was a junior in high school. In the middle of our routine at half-time, I would glance in the stands, searching for both parents to be there, cheering me on. Only to be disappointed.
Then again, early in our marriage, when we were trying so desperately to communicate with one another. We would leave our conversation both feeling misunderstood.
A few years later, I found myself sitting in a room full of women with happy faces, holding up tiny outfits and talking about their pregnancy stories. I sat with a plaster smile on my face, praying they wouldn’t ask me, holding it together until I made it to the car.
Now I am a work from home mom to children with special needs, running a ministry, and growing a business. I wash dishes what feels like a hundred times a day and no matter how hard I try, there is always laundry. I answer emails in the car line and scribble down titles as I’m making supper. And I still feel it when people tell me how lucky I am to be able to “stay at home.”
For all of these years, I’ve felt unseen during particular moments, or even seasons of my life. But I’ve never had the language to put words to precisely what I’ve felt. Those feelings were valid. I sat at that baby shower and not a soul knew my story or the ache of my pain. But the truth in those moments of feeling unseen, is that His eyes were on me, seeing, knowing, watching. Not a detail of my days were without notice from Him.
He’s been stirring this message in me for quite some time now. Offering an invitation to me in those moments when I feel misunderstood about who I am or what I do, to be defined only by Him. He invites me to sit in a room full of people who don’t truly understand the hard of my days, to let His seeing me, Him knowing, and fully understanding me be enough. He gave me revelation on Colossians 3 last fall, teaching me how I am “concealed protectively,” hidden in Christ Jesus.
So when one of my favorite authors ever, began talking about this very thing, being hidden, I knew it was a message the Father was cultivating in His body, not just in me. I love every word Sara Hagerty writes. When her words find their way into my inbox, they always confirm something He has been doing in me. She writes from such a hungry place, desperate to know Him more, never satisfied with where she is in Him, always wanting to go deeper.
A few years ago, I heard her speak at a writer’s conference, and knew she was different from most there. She wasn’t about platform building or followers or striving. What she had was real. It was Him. Her time with Him in the secret place seeped out into her words. In her first book, Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet, she wrote, “I barely know you, take me deeper.” And I have prayed that prayer every day for the last three years.
And He has. In the most beautiful ways.
Sara invited me to press in. When I read her words I am dissatisfied, left hungry for Him. It’s my deepest longing that you find yourself feeling the same when you leave here.
“When we know we are seen by the one who created praise itself and He is the one who gives us a word of affirmation- when He is the one who notices us pouring ourselves our in secret- we realize that this is what we craved all along. We hear His applause. We are celebrated. And something inside of us comes alive. In that one moment, the underground hidden life looks and feels very different,” Sara says in Unseen.
This message of being unseen keeps changing my life. I promise it will change yours too.
Because I just love her words and believe in this message so deeply, I am giving away a copy of Unseen. All you have to do is leave a comment below.
Or you can purchase a copy of Unseen here for yourself.
Sara is truly a gem. If you haven’t already, you can connect with her here…