December 1, 1992
A man took his elderly father to a psychiatrist. “I’m worried,” he said. “My father still drives a horse-drawn wagon but he is getting confused. His horse’s name is Joe, yet he drives down the road saying, `Come on, Joe! Come on, Steve! Come on, Sam!’”
The doctor asked the older man, “Is your horse named Joe?”
The old man nodded. “Certainly it’s Joe, but if I let him think he is pulling the wagon all by himself, he is apt to quit on me.”
Now that old gentleman was a thinker! Could it be that horses are just like people; we don’t like doing the job alone either? Furthermore, his way of encouraging his horse may have worked better than the techniques that psychiatrist used to encourage people!
Most of use words like “You can do it” or “We are counting on you.” Sometimes they do the trick, but whenever we are pulling a heavy load or doing a difficult job, it really helps to know we are not alone.
According to God, working alone is not good. After He created Adam, He said, “It is not good that man should be alone...” even though Adam was living in paradise! So God made Adam a companion to help him with his tasks.
Women don’t enjoy being left alone either. When Jesus came to dinner, Mary left her sister in the kitchen to visit with Him. Martha, “distracted with serving,” came to Jesus and complained, “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.” (So Jesus invited Martha to join her sister in the living room with Him.)
Even when Jesus Himself went alone into the wilderness to pray, He did not do that work without companionship. He said, “I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.”
All people need companionship, but we are so aware we no longer live in paradise. Sin and selfishness put wedges between even the best of friends. Husbands and wives struggle to maintain a sense of oneness. Everyone can feel alone in tough situations. Loneliness is acute when we have something very difficult to do and feel that no one knows or even cares.
Jesus understood that need. The disciples had been His closest companions for three years. When He told them He was going to die, they did not understand. It seemed as if their eyes and minds had thick clouds over them. Shortly before He was betrayed and taken to trial and crucified, He said to them, “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone...”
Can you imagine how Jesus felt? It was the most difficult task anyone would ever face, yet none of them stayed. None of them even said, “You are not alone!”
But He knew. This verse concludes with “... and yet I am not alone because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32). Jesus was so convinced of the presence of God that even when every human support was pulled out from under Him, He knew He would not finish His life’s work by Himself.
Paul knew it too. He wrote a letter to another pastor, Timothy, and warned him to watch out for a coppersmith named Alexander who had done him much harm in his resistance to the gospel. Paul added, “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me.” He was alone in the battle for truth.
However, this great Apostle was not angry at those who pulled out on him. He wrote, “May it not be charged against them.” He could pull his load alone because he knew the same encouraging presence that Jesus knew. The next verse says, “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.”
I am a lot like that horse called Joe. When I think I am pulling my load all by myself, I get balky and want to quit. It is too hard. However, out of all the promises that God makes, one stands out. It is constant. It is always true. It is something His people can depend on: “He Himself has said, `I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
Showing posts with label alone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label alone. Show all posts
Friday, October 30, 2015
Friday, February 6, 2015
No one is ever really alone ................. Parables 232
(September 19, 1990)
Some people have a great deal of difficulty leaving a blank piece of paper blank. Their urge to make their mark, whether on a napkin or a newly painted wall, is just too powerful to resist. Out comes pen or pocket knife and the void is filled with poems, doodles, sketches, or graffiti.
Others feel ill at ease and self-conscious with complete silence. They have a compulsion to fill it with noise. Talking, turning on the radio or just drumming fingers on the nearest table top becomes a must.
For some, solitude is equally uncomfortable, another blank space that must be filled. Some manage better than others but even loners discover that solitude can last too long. In fact, when confined, few people remain unaffected. Most want noise, activity, other people, something, anything. No wonder solitary is used as a punishment in correctional institutions.
Solitude isn’t God’s punishment though. In fact, I don’t think He wants us to experience it, or its sidekick, loneliness. Neither word is even in the Bible. When God created the first man, He said, “It is not good that man should be alone...” thus Eve was created to be his companion. But sometimes there is no one or nothing to fill our solitude. When that happens, we ought not feel completely abandoned. God did say, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Of course He won’t; it is impossible for Him to do so. He is everywhere. There is no place we can go to escape Him, so no one is ever really alone.
Maybe that is why it is so difficult to be in solitude. With no noise, no diversions, no one else to communicate with, we are left alone in His company. If we have a true concept of God, being shut up with Him is sure to be a disconcerting experience, one that is bound to result in certain responses. One of those might be resistance...
WRESTLING: Jacob, the Old Testament patriarch, spent all one night alone, wrestling with God. He desired a blessing from Him and God desired submission from Jacob. By morning, both were winners: God gave the blessing and from that time on, Jacob was a changed man. If solitude with God winds up in a wrestling match, we profit if we remember that losing is winning. Submission to Him always results in a blessing.
PRAYER: The only times Jesus was alone, at least that are recorded, are occasions when He sought solitude to pray. When we submit to the Lord, solitude can be an excellent time to talk to the only other Person with us in it -- and of course, a great time to listen to Him.
LEARNING: During the many occasions that the disciples spent alone with Jesus, they learned truths He couldn’t teach them in a larger group. For us, solitude also can be a great time to learn from the Lord in a very direct and personal way; but we must listen, not drown Him out with noises of our own.
RETREAT: In John 6:15, we are told the people decided Jesus would make a great king so tried to force Him into the role. Since it was not God’s will at that time, He took off to the mountains, alone. Sometimes the only way we can escape the pressures of our world is to retreat and get away from the pressure. Besides, being alone with Him will better equip us to deal with it.
SEEING JESUS: Perhaps the greatest profit in being alone is realizing who is there with us. In Luke 9, the disciples were alone with Jesus and He asked them who they thought He was. They responded with, “You are the Christ of God.” They knew His identity because each time they were alone with Him He revealed Himself to them in increasing intimacy until finally they were convinced. From then on, their lives were transformed and they became world-changers. It can happen to anyone who values being face to face with Christ.
Solitude might not be our choice at times, but when it is God’s choice for us, it helps us to remember we are never really alone. He is there to fill the empty space and give beauty and meaning to it. Instead of shutting out His voice by turning on the radio or rushing to the telephone, we can choose aloneness to be a wonder-filled opportunity to talk to the Lord, to hear what He has to say and in the process, become more intimate with Him.
Some people have a great deal of difficulty leaving a blank piece of paper blank. Their urge to make their mark, whether on a napkin or a newly painted wall, is just too powerful to resist. Out comes pen or pocket knife and the void is filled with poems, doodles, sketches, or graffiti.
Others feel ill at ease and self-conscious with complete silence. They have a compulsion to fill it with noise. Talking, turning on the radio or just drumming fingers on the nearest table top becomes a must.
For some, solitude is equally uncomfortable, another blank space that must be filled. Some manage better than others but even loners discover that solitude can last too long. In fact, when confined, few people remain unaffected. Most want noise, activity, other people, something, anything. No wonder solitary is used as a punishment in correctional institutions.
Solitude isn’t God’s punishment though. In fact, I don’t think He wants us to experience it, or its sidekick, loneliness. Neither word is even in the Bible. When God created the first man, He said, “It is not good that man should be alone...” thus Eve was created to be his companion. But sometimes there is no one or nothing to fill our solitude. When that happens, we ought not feel completely abandoned. God did say, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Of course He won’t; it is impossible for Him to do so. He is everywhere. There is no place we can go to escape Him, so no one is ever really alone.
Maybe that is why it is so difficult to be in solitude. With no noise, no diversions, no one else to communicate with, we are left alone in His company. If we have a true concept of God, being shut up with Him is sure to be a disconcerting experience, one that is bound to result in certain responses. One of those might be resistance...
WRESTLING: Jacob, the Old Testament patriarch, spent all one night alone, wrestling with God. He desired a blessing from Him and God desired submission from Jacob. By morning, both were winners: God gave the blessing and from that time on, Jacob was a changed man. If solitude with God winds up in a wrestling match, we profit if we remember that losing is winning. Submission to Him always results in a blessing.
PRAYER: The only times Jesus was alone, at least that are recorded, are occasions when He sought solitude to pray. When we submit to the Lord, solitude can be an excellent time to talk to the only other Person with us in it -- and of course, a great time to listen to Him.
LEARNING: During the many occasions that the disciples spent alone with Jesus, they learned truths He couldn’t teach them in a larger group. For us, solitude also can be a great time to learn from the Lord in a very direct and personal way; but we must listen, not drown Him out with noises of our own.
RETREAT: In John 6:15, we are told the people decided Jesus would make a great king so tried to force Him into the role. Since it was not God’s will at that time, He took off to the mountains, alone. Sometimes the only way we can escape the pressures of our world is to retreat and get away from the pressure. Besides, being alone with Him will better equip us to deal with it.
SEEING JESUS: Perhaps the greatest profit in being alone is realizing who is there with us. In Luke 9, the disciples were alone with Jesus and He asked them who they thought He was. They responded with, “You are the Christ of God.” They knew His identity because each time they were alone with Him He revealed Himself to them in increasing intimacy until finally they were convinced. From then on, their lives were transformed and they became world-changers. It can happen to anyone who values being face to face with Christ.
Solitude might not be our choice at times, but when it is God’s choice for us, it helps us to remember we are never really alone. He is there to fill the empty space and give beauty and meaning to it. Instead of shutting out His voice by turning on the radio or rushing to the telephone, we can choose aloneness to be a wonder-filled opportunity to talk to the Lord, to hear what He has to say and in the process, become more intimate with Him.
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