YOU’RE SO FAR FROM ALONE!

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

You may be lonesome, but you're so far from alone. That's a line from a new Wood Brothers song, and I love it. It's so powerful because what it does is it connects with our human experience of feeling lonely. Each of us has an experience of loneliness maybe in a small way throughout the week in the midst of a difficult experience of parenting.

You felt very alone this week. Maybe there's a challenge at your job. Maybe it's the overwhelming loneliness of the loss of someone you love or a difficult medical diagnosis. But at any rate, any of these moments, you and I, we can feel alone. But what the Wood Brothers sing about and what we can rejoice in as we continue to celebrate Easter is that we aren't alone.

That God is with us. That in Jesus' resurrection, that life is offered to us. That gives a fullness of life. And that ultimately as we join in God's work, as we join in building God's kingdom, that there's a way for us to feel less alone because we'll get connected to others. And so I wanna offer you three ideas to help you be able to resonate with that song that while you might feel lonesome, you're so far from alone.

First is that God is with us. In John 14, as Jesus is preparing the disciples for his death and knowing that they will have this moment in which they feel alone, he says, I'm not going to abandon you. I'm not going to orphan you. I'm going to send you my spirit, and my spirit will abide with you, and my spirit will be in you.

My spirit in which the scriptures call the "paraclete". He's an advocate, a counselor, a comforter. And so how is God with us? God is with us through God's spirit that is in us and with us. Now, how does that work? Well, you know, we celebrated Mother's Day this past Sunday, and I think moms at their best remind us of how God is with us.

Every mom I know always has their child or children in their mind, they're always thinking about them. They're always hoping for them. They have moments in their life in which they need an advocate. They have moments where they need a comforter. They have moments in which they need a counselor and mom step in and fill that role.

And so God's spirit does the same thing for us. Now, the challenge is that sometimes while God's spirit is there and near, we can't feel it. And there's a real difference between God being near and us feeling alone. Because while we feel alone, it doesn't mean that God is not near. When I was thinking about an analogy to sort of describe this, it reminded me of helping my kids learned to sleep. After spending a bunch of time with their mom, it had gotten to the point where they just would wake up every night crying. And so we adopted the sleep training method, in which what we would do is we would stand outside the door and when our child cried, we'd go in, comfort the child, lay the child down and leave the room again. Now, the problem is, is that then the child would stir and think that they were alone again, and they didn't wanna be alone.

But then we would come in and reassure, lay the child back down and leave the room again. And in those moments, while the child felt alone, what they learned is that they weren't alone. They may have felt lonesome, but they were so far from alone because we were right outside the door. And that's an encouraging picture, I think, for us, because there are times in which we feel like God is far away.

But while we might feel that that isn't actually how God operates. And so God is near providing comfort, providing counseling, and providing and fighting for us as an advocate would. And so this idea that we're so far from alone and that God is with us, are not just happy words. It's a reality that God is near.

But not only that, God offers life. So as Jesus is preparing the disciples in John 14 for his departure, he says, Hey, I'm gonna go away, but you are going to have life because I am still alive. And of course there John is foreshadowing the resurrection. But God gives us life. God gives life in all kinds of ways.

You go outside and you see the energy of life. The trees and the sun and the birds and the people and the sounds remind you that you aren't alone, that the world is filled with life. God also creates a community. And so for us here at Grace, our desire is that no one would feel alone that those who feel lonesome would come here and that they would find connection.

We wanna be a people who travel through the messiness of life. We want to choose hope, we wanna love our world. And we think each of those are ways in which we can live out this idea that Jesus life offers us life. And of course, Jesus life in spite of his death is a word that the loneliness of death is not the final word.

Whenever we travel through death, whether it's approaching it ourselves or losing a loved one or being with someone who is at the end of their life, I think that there's a haunting loneliness in it. And that, of course is what we're afraid of. But in Jesus' resurrection, what we are told is that death and the loneliness that comes with it does not threaten true life.

And so we have that hope to fill us as well. Now the final thing that Jesus offers to his disciples to prepare them for him leaving and the threat of them feeling this loneliness that you and I feel is to remind them that if they do the work of Jesus, that they will experience God and experience Jesus in their life.

And so what that is a reminder to us is that as we engage. Grace and mercy and love and forgiveness that that very act draws us into community, draws us into community with God, and draws us into community with others. One of the reasons that we're so passionate here at Grace about partnering with places like the Samaritan Center and Sleep in Heavenly Peace and Young Life, Young Lives is that they help us have a space to participate.

In God's work so that we can be connected to God and one another because shared work leads to shared community. This is true in all kinds of places. As we raise a family together, that's shared work, and so there's a shared sense of community. As I work with different organizations to help them clarify their compelling purpose and the values.

It creates community because they share in that work of building that. Of course, even a sports team, we can see the analogy that the shared work builds shared community, and so it's a reminder to us that when we feel alone, while there might be a temptation to disconnect and isolate, one of the things that might be so helpful for us is to engage, to volunteer, to check in, to participate, because in that shared work, their shared community, I'm sure that there'll be a moment this week.

Where you will feel a sense of loneliness. But just remember God is with you. With you through the spirit being your comforter, your advocate, your counselor that God's life and conquering of death reminds us that life is what will triumph. And so in that moment, rather than, accept the feeling of loneliness,

Let's look to others. Let's engage. Let's be a community that in the shared work experiences God and experiences life with each other. Hey, I hope that you have a great week, and I hope in the moment in which you feel lonesome, you will remind yourself that you are so far from alone. See you soon.