Overcoming alone

One of the times in the Bible I see Jesus experiencing the agony of being alone is in the Garden of Gethsemane.

 Jesus was being faced with His darkest storms. Satan was throwing at Him the worst demons, lies, and temptations. Darkness surrounded Jesus and he had to be full of fear knowing how he must die a painful death on the cross- taking a risk that humanity might reject him totally.

He was with three of his best friends and yet he felt totally alone. He said to his closest disciples "Sit here while I go and pray over there, for my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me."

Falling on His face in despair and pain and loneliness and agony.. he pleaded to God to provide another way less painful. To provide an alternative method of salvation. To provide a comforter or a friend in this dark time..

Yearning for support, for help, for guidance, for love- he looked over to his best friends- only to find them sleeping. In the time he needed them most.. they were sleeping. In the time He needed God's spirit most, God had to watch his son suffer alone.

Alone, loneliness. Jesus went there to the depths of this feeling and this place. He went there to show us that we could go there too and that we could overcome it like He did. I think He went there to show us that people on this earth are always going to let us down. There are going to be times where even our closest friends don't seem to understand that pain we are going through or see us. 

And yet it's comforting to know that we never have to experience the exact loneliness Jesus felt- of having to be pulled away from His loving heavenly Father.

I think the more we dwell close to the heart of God- the more we will no longer have to face the enemy's spell of loneliness. I don't believe God created us to have loneliness- He created us to dwell in relationships. 

And when we are lonely, I believe it demonstrates a lack, that there's something missing in our lives. The heart of God is so relationally based that the trinity is made up of three not one. God has designed our hearts with a longing for belonging, with a desire to fellowship, with a desire to know others and to love them.

And I can only imagine what heaven will be when this love is truly fulfilled as we all choose to be one.

Until heaven, I believe we can overcome loneliness by drawing nearer to God's character of inclusiveness, love, and harmony while choosing to follow Jesus' footsteps and learn to serve others- everyone around us.