Have you ever prayed to the Lord for peace and still felt your heart racing? Fear rushes in before you can even catch your thoughts. And maybe the hardest part is that the situation has not changed. The issue is not resolved. The thing that started the fear is still sitting right in front of you. Sometimes peace feels far away, not because we do not love Jesus, know Scripture, or pray enough, but because fear can feel very loud in a very real situation.

Vivian was surrounded by people who loved and adored her, but no one knew she was suffering from childhood trauma, or that she barely slept—sometimes going days without any sleep at all. Even her closest friends had no idea she was suffering in silence. Tragically, when the darkness pressed in and became too much she took her own precious life, and we lost her forever.

I thought holding everything together was the key to happiness, until I realized God had something better in mind. Control. Planning. Perfecting. If you’re anything like me, you’ve clung tightly to life like a checklist, believing that if you just manage everything well enough, you’ll finally feel whole and fix what is broken. The truth is, even when things look “perfect” on the outside, you can still feel hollow, restless, and unsatisfied on the inside.

Forgiveness is one of the most challenging yet liberating acts we can ever experience.