the crushing weight of pretending your faith is intact while your soul is screaming

You are walking through a crowd of faces that look just like yours, all of them wearing the same smooth, steady mask. You are performing a faith you are too tired to feel, smiling while your soul screams into the silence behind your ribs.

But the light that lives inside you sees right through the porcelain of your face. It knows the difference between the performance you offer the world and the trembling honesty of your heart.

Do not fear the cracking of the mask, for the light is not impressed by how well you pretend. It only loves who you are when no one else is watching.

Stay here in the truth of your exhaustion, because that is the only place where you can finally be whole.