Alone

[deacon blues]

A big day for us, first the Parking Lot Sale, then Coleman's soccer game, then hosting our Tuesday night small group for a cookout. When it was all done it was just the two of us, Zoe spending the night with a friend and Mary in Brazil. Coleman went into the house but I didn't at first, I had a couple of things to do. Coleman came back out. I said "watcha doin?" He said, "I don't like being alone." Glad he came back out to be with me I said, "Neither do I, Coley, neither do I."

It's a great fear isn't it? Being alone. The word itself means to be "all one", alone. Solitary. Forgotten. Deserted.

A woman wrote me this week. She had been crying she said because she had begun to feel again. After four marriages she had given up on the notion that she would ever have a "happy ever after". She met a man. They have been seeing each other. She likes him. She has begun to feel some hope that she will not be alone. She could see a possible future.

She and the man ended up in a dispute. She saw a side she hadn't seen in him before. She was relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with another man in her life, so many relationships had gone so bad before. But still, she said, she kept wanting to go to that cellphone to contact him again. The craving for companionship, the desire to not be alone great, even in the face of a disastrous future, she still wanted to reach out and make a connection.

She said she just simply wanted "someone to say nice things to me, just making intelligent conversation..." The hunger for human love is compelling.

"I don't like being alone." My little boy spoke his heart. He speaks for most of us. Yet we're having to say goodbye to so many of the vital, meaningful relationships in our lives: our kids grow up and move away, our grandparents and parents pass away, spouses divorce or grow apart, friends change over time, as the years increase, they grow more distant. We find ourselves alone more and more.

Why does God design us to be so relational and yet life seems to trend toward loneliness? Could it be that through life's journey His plan is to help us realize that He remains? He is the One who never leaves, never forsakes. He doesn't move away or reject us. He'll never divorce Himself from us. He won't grow distant with time. He won't cut ties with us.

We can find ourselves feeling lonely. We can search to fill the void. We can reach for the cellphone, or make contact on the Internet, drive ourselves to find a friend, invite someone over, try to surround ourselves with people. But even in the crowd, we're alone.

Reach for the silent partner who is with you. Commune with God. Talk to Him. Share your fear of being alone. Let Him comfort you. Find peace in His friendship. Find joy in His goodness. He is a friend who loves at all times. Appreciate the people you have been given in your life, but understand there is one companion who will never allow you to be alone because He is ever present.