Prayer

You are not alone in this. Whether you are fighting or grieving or holding someone’s hand through the hardest days of their life, or praying over someone who has recently gone to heaven, you are being held by something greater than what you can see.

On the days it feels like too much, let it be too much. Rest without guilt. Cry without shame. You don’t have to be strong every second of every day.

I pray for healing in the bodies that are still fighting. I pray for peace in the minds of the ones left behind. I pray for the families sitting in waiting rooms and the families learning how to wake up every morning without the person who made their world feel whole. I pray for the ones who are scared but showing up anyway. I pray for the ones who just lost their person and don’t know how to breathe without them. I pray for comfort on the nights that feel the longest — the ones where the house is too quiet and the missing is too loud.

You are more than a diagnosis. You are more than the grief. You are someone’s whole world and you matter here.

Whether you are holding on or learning how to live after letting go, light always comes after darkness. Hold on.

Context

James Van Der Beek moved his wife and six kids to Texas. He left Hollywood behind. He fixed up a home with his own hands. He was a dad first—that was the thing he was most proud of.

He passed away on February 11 from colorectal cancer. He was 48. His youngest is 4.

And his family has nothing left.

The cost of fighting cancer took everything from them. Everything. A GoFundMe was set up by friends and passed $1 million in less than a day. You can still donate. That says something beautiful about people.

But please, don’t let that beauty distract you from what is broken. You can do everything right. You can live humbly. You can love your family with everything you have. You can fight for your life. And still, cancer can take it all.

This happens to families every single day who don’t have a GoFundMe that goes viral. Every single day someone is losing everything trying to keep someone they love alive. Please, love the people around you harder today. Check in on the people you think are fine. Hold the ones you love a little tighter. You never know what someone is carrying.

Sending love to every family fighting cancer right now. You are not alone. You are seen.