I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul.

Psalm 31:7

People who have chronic illness know what it feels like to go through life unseen. Many chronic illnesses are invisible. You experience difficult symptoms, but no one can see when you are struggling. Even if you experience outward signs of illness or use mobility devices, you may struggle to explain to doctors, family members, and friends the extent to which symptoms impact your life. 

You likely hold a desire for people to understand what you are going through. If the suffering won’t go away, you at least want people to see your pain and acknowledge how much life hurts. Often people show up in the first weeks and months of poor health, but when illness persists for years or decades, support begins to fade. It’s hard for people to comprehend suffering that doesn’t go away. 

People move on. They stop asking, which means they stop knowing. They stop showing up, which means they stop seeing. You may feel forgotten and abandoned, isolated and alone. Even if you are surrounded by supportive people who do everything they can to help and understand, at the end of the day no one can know what it is like to live inside your body but you. 

It can be depressing to grapple with the reality that no one fully gets your situation—but in the end this realization leads to an important, freeing truth. The only one who can fulfill our desire to be truly seen and fully known is God. In times of suffering, Psalm 31 reminds you of an important truth: God sees your affliction. He knows the distress of your soul. God sees beyond what is visible on the outside. He sees all the ways illness impacts you that no one else can fully understand. He sees beyond your circumstances and into your soul. He sees your hurt and pain, your questions and grief, your sin and doubt. He sees the times you don’t know how you will keep going but somehow manage to continue on. 

I often have to remind myself that no one can see my pain.  I can’t expect people to know when my symptoms are increasing or when I am having a hard time. I can’t keep people updated on my pain levels every single time they rise and fall—nor would I want to. I don’t know how to put into words why I can push through certain symptoms but not others. I can’t explain these things—but God doesn’t need my explanations.

God knows everything; nothing is hidden from his sight (see Heb. 4:13). Maybe you can’t feel God’s presence or see what he is doing, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t there. He sees you—even when you can’t see him. He knows when no one else knows. His love is steadfast and faithful, and he will never tire of sticking with you, no matter how long your illness lasts.

—Esther Smith, author, Chronic Illness