
Friday, December 22, 2017
I’m learning I am never alone.
“Why is it so hard to be me?”
Sometimes I whine, in the recesses of my own mind. Sometimes I laugh when I say it. Sometimes I don’t laugh at all.
When I am dealing with darkness and difficulty, I feel extremely alone.
Deep down a little voice says, “No one understands what I’m going through. No one.”
But that’s an out and out lie the enemy feeds me.
Do you hear that lie too?
Don’t buy it. Because the truth is…
You and I are not alone.
Jesus does understand.
Jesus knows what it is like to be you and to be me.
Why is this important?
Because every time we think “No one knows what it’s like to be me in this situation,” Jesus does.
There is something miraculous about being known.
When you and I realize Jesus really does know us from the inside out, we don’t have to feel alone and misunderstood.
How does Jesus know?
The Bible tells us so.
Jesus knows what it’s like to…
- Experience wonderful joy (Luke 10:21) and unbearable pain (Mark 15:34).
- Sit around a table feasting and hanging out with friends (Luke 5: 27-32, Luke 22: 14-23, Mark 2: 15-17).
- See a best friend hurting; to walk through unbearable pain with him or her. (Mark 5: 35-43).
- Have an overbearing parent (John 2: 1-12).
- Have your life purpose ridiculed and criticized by your own family (John 7:1-9).
- Disconnect from your loved ones if God says that it’s time. (Luke 8: 19-21).
- Lose a someone and deal with everyone else’s grief in the midst of your own grieving (John 11:1-44).
- Weep over loved ones you know are far from God’s will for their lives (Luke 19:44).
- Be taunted and tempted in your most vulnerable and secret places. (Matthew 4: 1-11).
- Be abandoned by your friends (Mark 14: 10-11, Mark 14: 66-72), scared to death (Luke 22: 39-46) and so worried you cannot sleep a wink (Matthew 26: 36-46).
- Be exhausted because of your work (John 4:1-7)
- Have needy people pushing in on you from all sides wanting more than you have to give (Luke 5:1-3, Luke 8: 42-48).
- Feel short-tempered because you haven’t fueled your body properly (Mark 11:12-24).
- Face disapproval (John 5:39-44) and disappoint people (Luke 4: 42-44).
- Tick people off by setting your own healthy boundaries (Luke 5: 15-16).
- Feel completely misunderstood (John 14: 6-11, Luke 24: 13-32).
- Get your feelings hurt.
- Experience rejection (Luke 4: 16-24).
- Be mocked, bullied, beaten (Luke 22:63), and hated (John 15:18-25).
- Feel strange in your own skin, not at home in the world. (John 16)
The list goes on and on.
Jesus doesn’t just know you and I…
Jesus knows what it’s like to live in our skin.
Even 2017 years later, this means more than anything I can possibly fathom.
You and I are NEVER alone.
Also published on Medium.
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Categorized in: advent 2017