I know what it's like to be alone...

When I first read Leaha McGillivrey’s words that  would one day become this song Human Love I was moved by her awesome use of the obvious. By listing instead of trying to rhyme she created a powerful indictment of human frailty and how it sets us up for failure and tragedy.

Jesus lives in the shadows of this song but makes a grand entrance in its finale. Not unlike real life, huh? Are we not profoundly wrapped up in the human condition in light of the presence of a real God? A bitter man once said to me that God owns an ant farm, implying that we’re just some sort of experiment that He has no interaction with.

How sad that was to hear. I was staring at a man broken by his own choices. His finances were ruined, his marriage failing, he had too many health issues to list, his children hated him and now he was criticizing God. While I understand the extreme pain this man was in I also knew him well enough to attest to the frequency God had tried to reach him to no avail. I watched stubborn pride make this man the mess he is today.

And at the heart of it all was loneliness. No friends, no family, no job, no money, no health, no God. His was a Hell on earth and he was in it all by himself. But isn’t that what Hell is ultimately, a place without fellowship, a place without relationship, a place without love? Don’t too many of us frequent this establishment way too often?  And for what? Foolish pride that wants us to deny our need for a Savior! Not just for our souls but for our everyday circumstances.

My gosh! We’ll fight to the death to claim we are self-made but watch feebly as our marriages corrode and our children fall away into aimlessness, sin and death. I cannot tell you how many “christians” I have counseled who have lost their children to drugs, abusive marriages and suicide. I’ve listened to parents say, “Well, I’ve never done drugs” or “When I was their age…” or “Why couldn’t they be more like me?” with such arrogance only to one day realize that they had used their children to make themselves look better in their own eyes instead of teaching their children how important they were in Jesus’ eyes.

Once I watched an abusive man throw himself on the coffin of his daughter being lowered into the ground for its final rest. As he wailed, “I’m sorry for everything I ever said and did to you,” I knew that man was in Hell. How lonely he must have been.  I understand now that Jesus was standing there too. But no one had invited Him to the funeral, so quiet He remained.

Before we blame Jesus for not making our lives better than they are we need to remember that while He promised to never leave or forsake us it is not His job to fix everything and tuck us into bed with warm milk and cookies. If we reject Him, He has no choice but to wait. If we ignore Him, He has no choice but to wait. If we are lonely it is because we have not called on Him. For if we call on Him, He has no choice but to make His presence known.

 Ask Him.

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