"I Hurt Too"

This is good; it is real.
I'm glad someone is being honest in a way that most musicians who are Christians are not...

I Hurt Too By Katie Herzig

When you’re weary
And haunted
And your life is not what you wanted
When you’re trying so hard to find it

When the lies speak the loudest
When your friends are starting to leave
When you’re broken by people like me

I hurt too, I hurt too

When an ocean sits right between us
There is no sign that we’ll ever cross
You should know now that I feel the loss

I hurt too, I hurt too

Even though you are drowning in valleys of echoes
I believe there is peace in those hills up ahead
You will climb ‘til you find places you’ll never let go
And I will also be here praying just like I said

I hurt too, I hurt too

It is a reminder that hurt is real, and pain is real and we shouldn't just push it into the corner, or trivialize the hurts and pains of others, or even ourselves. So often, I want to ignore the fact that I have pain. I want to quickly hide it away, because it reveals my brokenness, my vulnerability, my need. Ahh, how we hate to feel needy. It is hard to feel raw, but it is also a truth of the human condition that we need to understand.

As a now oft-quoted author, Madeline L'Engle, has said: "But to grow up is to accept vulnerability.... To be alive is to be vulnerable."

This is scary, but it is also true. I sometimes hate that it is true, but when I am my unmasked, true, raw self, I feel most real. Maybe we could say I almost feel more alive. When I sit here with tears streaming down my face, or I ache within my heart after a friend has hurt me, it's real. I'm not saying pain and hurt are the preferential state we should aspire towards, but at the same time they reveal a great truth of who we are as people. They reveal our need for something that we ourselves simply cannot muster, despite our greatest efforts. They remind us that we were made for something fuller, deeper, more perfect than this present condition. I need the friend who is near to the broken hearted, the one who doesn't trivialize my pain, but holds it, rubs it, and heals it...slowly, bit by bit. And he gives me time to grieve. The final lines of this song echo such a thing: "I believe there is peace in those hills up ahead." The peace is what I hold out for, it's what I live for; it's as real as the hurt and pain, we just can't see it in all of its fullness and glory.

I praise God for people like Katie Herzig, for speaking into the lives of others who "hurt too." Have a listen, she's good.