You Are Not Alone

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

There are times when I might wish I were alone. Oh, to capture a few moments by myself away from the noise of people who want or need something from me. But I usually want back into my life in a few minutes, back to dealing with whatever it was I wanted a break from.

We aren't meant to be alone, and few of us want to be alone. Even on the cross, Jesus knew the loneliness of death: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" It is also in that moment that Christ bore all our real loneliness, our alienation from life and God.

But we don't need to be alone. What we need is to not only develop a better sense of God's ever-presence to us, but the need for our our ever-presence to others.

You see, in those moments I seek for myself, I am not seeking alone-ness. I am seeking solitude, which is simply a way of using our environment to create the conditions that allows our personalities to reemerge, without the radiation and distraction of other peoples' influences. And in solitude - free from the immediate influence from others - we can see them as they really are: people who need our ever-presence, and people who need our prayers and empathy.

Take those moments when you are alone, and make them moments of solitude: rediscover yourself. If you can do that, you will never be lonely again.