Are you ALONE?

All too often, our thoughts and conversations reveal that we wrestle with characters who have moved on and events that don’t really matter. The people who surround us are kept on hold while we invest massive amount of attention to areas of the past that are dead and possess no ability to reward. It is like slow dancing alone, or singing harmony when there is no melody. There is something missing that causes our presentation to lose its luster. Stop the music! Your partner is gone and you are waiting by yourself!

I think that the greatest of all depression comes when we live and gather our successes just to prove to someone who isn’t even looking. The problem is we can’t really appreciate our successes because they are done by us not for us. They are done in the name of a person, place, or thing that has moved on, leaving us trapped in a time warp, wondering why we are not fulfilled by our job, education, or good fortune.

God did most of his work on creation with no one around to applaud His accomplishment. So He praised Himself. He said, “It was good!” Have you stopped to appreciate what God has allowed you to accomplish, or have you been too busy trying to make an impression on someone? No one paints for the blind or sings for the deaf. Their level of appreciation is hindered by their physical limitations. Although they may be fine connoisseurs in some other arena, they will never appreciate what they can’t detect.

Let’s clap and cheer for the people whose absence teaches us the gift of being alone. Somewhere beyond loneliness there is contentment, and contentment is born out of necessity. It springs up in the hum of the heart that lives in an empty house, and in the smirk and smile that comes on the face of a person who has amused himself with his own thought.

Have you reached that place in life where you can enjoy your company? Have you taken the time to enjoy your own personhood? Have you massaged lotion into your skin, or set the dinner table for yourself? Drive yourself to the mall and spend an afternoon picking up a gift for YOU. These self-affirming ministries can never be given to you by someone else. When they leave, you may feel worthless and insignificant. But when you speak comfort and blessings to yourself, it reflects your own opinion about yourself. Just like Jacob was left ALONE wrestling with a man until the break of the day (Gen 32:24), I ask you; are you ALONE?

Gracias