Guard against being alone
Hello Saints,
The other day I drove by one of the “tent cities” in Kitchener. It was a hot day, sticky and humid, I had just come back from a gathering of old car collectors (the cars were old, not the collectors, although many were also…lol). There inside the tents of this little village sat groups of people, huddled together out of the sun, socializing in their little communities. It seemed remarkably similar to the community of car collectors I had just left – people gathered under tents discussing what interested them. The two venues proclaimed the same truth – we are meant for community and we will gather according to what unites us – what we have in common. Whether it be homelessness or old cars, affinity groups are created amongst peers to offer support, guidance, resources, friendships and community. “No man is an island” wrote many a poet and songwriter. We are not made for isolation but created for fellowship: “it is not good for the man to be alone” says the Creator, who Himself exists in the perfect community of the Holy Three. It is one of the things Jesus railed against with the religion of His day – a works-based religion that isolated and separated people according to their religious and socio-economic status. When the Gospel is received and properly applied to the new church community, we witness the Acts 2:42-47 model, “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common” (vs. 44). Togetherness, meeting each other’s needs, fellowship and true Christ-centered community – koinonia! This is a huge trademark of a healthy church community: “Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit and bind yourselves together with peace” (Eph. 4:3 NLT).
What prompted me to write this morning? I woke up with this verse on my mind: “You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend” (Psa. 88:18 NIV). That utter feeling of being alone and lonely - Jesus felt it as He faced the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. Not even His closest friends could stay awake to pray with Him, and they would all abandon Him, even forsaken by His own Father. It’s like Psalm 88 was penned by Jesus as He hung on the cross. God forbid that I should ever be at that place where I have no one who will stand to help me or walk with me during the most trying days of my life, where I feel truly “alone” and am overwhelmed with feelings of loneliness. I suddenly have great empathy for those who find themselves in those situations – it must be the closest thing to hell. I am struck as I age at the amount of times I am in need of others to get things done. Whether through illness or injury, abandonment and death, it amazes me how we go through seasons where our dependence on self is suddenly transformed into dependence on others to supply what we are unable to do, be it a momentary affliction or an enduring illness. What a humbling to go from independence to complete dependence – and yet in some odd way, to discover what really being “in Christ’ is all about – ‘it is no longer I that live’! To discover that I need the people with whom God has called me to live. The care a spouse, a child, a friend can give in those moments of human weakness and frailty are priceless. To bathe and dress an aging parent; to serve a sick spouse; to comfort a troubled friend – is it not in those moments where we truly get to live as Jesus: “I have not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for others” (Mark 10:45) – “it is more blessed to give then receive” (Acts 20:35). Is growing in Christ learning that I need to surrender my independence and lay “self” on the altar to be burned up? Lord help me! I see through the Apostle Paul’s writings a powerful man who once held a high position in Judaism, filled with an unmatched zeal to harm believers in Jesus, transformed into a slave of Christ who valued true community and relied on those “assistants” God have given him, like Timothy and Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:19-28). In his many trials and tribulations, beatings and banishments, Paul was grateful for the people God had put in his life to assist him. You remember that when Paul met the Lord on the road to Damascus, the immediate result was blindness which resulted in Paul depending on others to lead and assist him (Acts 22:11-13). God has a way of teaching us dependence on Him by letting Him supply others to help us. I believe Paul got the message early, even as he penned his earliest letter and wrote, “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:1).
I could go on a long time, but let me wrap up by stating what I am observing as I age. We are continually being sanctified and transformed into the image of our Lord. The Christian life is one where I decrease and Jesus increases – I die daily. That means I lose my independence and become dependent on Jesus and His people ministering to me, because He works through His people. Like Paul learned, “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:9-10). God used fellow believers to encourage him, bandage his wounds, support him financially, pray for him, etc. The two-part application is this: As a member of Christ’s community, the Church, I need to be available to help my brothers and sisters in need, and when I am in need, allow others to serve me with their gifts. My pride will say, “I can do it myself”, when the Spirit of Unity is saying, “I am sending someone with the gift I have given them to minster to your need and carry your burden”. Maybe the problem is not giving help but receiving it. If that is the way God designed the church to be, I and we need to be submitted to Holy Spirit and to the community of believers God has given us, so we can serve one another in love (Gal. 5:13), and reflect the heart of our Savior.
Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help.
But people who are alone when they fall are in real trouble. (Ecc. 4:9-10 NLT)
"Advancing the Kingdom of God by releasing Spirit-filled followers to serve Jesus in freedom and joy."
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