Heroes in Crisis

They said I was hope. . .I couldn't be what I thought they'd wanted me to be. . .but hope isn't denying who you are or what you've been through; what you lost. Hope is knowing what you carry with you. How heavy is the load. How easy it'd be to stay still, to do nothing. To yield to the weight and fall to the mud. And yet despite that burden, or maybe because of it, you're still running.

I asked the Lord our God why we suffer. He didn't answer. He couldn't speak through the tears.

Let me tell you. Before anything, what you need to do next is talk to these people. Hear their story. Tell yours, and understand you're not the only one who tried to do something good, and ended up doing something horrible. You're not the only one who's been hurt so bad that the hurt becomes part of you, as much as you hate it, that the hurt is you. You're not the only one who was betrayed by a friend, who's had the person they thought they could trust forever end their life. You're not the only one who has felt the madness creep in. Who wants to turn away from it all and keeps turning toward it. You're not the only one who has done some terrible things who will now forever try to make up for that harm. You understand. Don't kill. Don't run. Do what I did. Talk. Listen. And know. As bad as it is, we're in it together.

So, yes, Sanctuary exists. It exists to help those heroes recover from this pain, to help them recognize themselves under these scars, to help them wake from these nightmares. But its existence should not scare you. On the contrary, it should comfort you. This suffering. This need for healing. It is not the mark of a madman. It is the wound of a warrior.

Our hope for redemption is now just another hunt for vengeance.