Time alone! Have you ever wished to be alone to your own thoughts and desires? I know I often do. Well, I was given that opportunity last week with a snow day and Bev having to go to work. With our "empty nest" it was just me alone...just me, myself, and I...yep me all mono, all day! Paradise right?
I have to admit, my alone time last week wound up being pretty depressing. I began to think about a multitude of things that only added to my self-reflecting moments that resulted in quite the lonely pity party that it became!
Upon reflecting on this time alone with my kindred spirit Beverly, after she had noticed upon her return that I was not acting myself, I began to think more of the effects and actions of being alone.
God does not want us to spend too much time alone, although it is necessary to reflect and relax from time to time. He has offered us companionship with other people as He did Adam in the Garden of Eden through relationships and opportunities to worship and bond with others in daily activities. God wants us to talk.
“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.””
Genesis 2:18 NLT
God also wants us to talk to Him. My unexpected day off threw my routines into disarray, and my daily morning reflection was lost to unplanned actions and thoughts taking control of my day. I forgot to pray that morning! My self-absorption affected my relationship with Him.
“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.”
Proverbs 18:1 ESV
This experience has made me more aware of the many possible effects of being alone. It has made me more understanding of my Dad's life now in his nursing home, where he is surrounded by people who he cannot communicate with. His mind still works very well, even though his eyes and ears do not. He is alone like I was but in his case he is alone almost every day, reflecting on a blessed life and thinking continually of things that have occurred in a lifetime of 95 years plus.
From the 23rd Psalm...
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
My Dad has always been someone who I have looked up to for guidance and direction and in many ways I have tried to emulate his actions in mine. This is one more instance where I have seen him do things or heard of things he has done that I wonder if I could do myself. Lonliness is his current battle and all those of us who visit him can do is provide temporary relief.
God wants us to have someone else to spend our lives with, and He wants us to know He is always there when others may not be. He has left us with the Word and the Holy Spirit to comfort us and guide us. We just need to remember Him in our daily routine and build our relationship with prayer. As Jesus tells us in John 14:15-19, we will never be alone as faithful believers.
““If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live.”
John 14:15-19 NLT
Let us remember God's promises as we bow our heads in a word of prayer for the loaf.
