No One Alone

This article appeared in the December, 2014 issue of the Wheatland Parish newsletter.

            This month we’re going to start a new prayer emphasis within the church.

            Before I get into it, I want to make clear that we are not stopping our prayer emphasis on the unchurched children of the parish.  That needs to continue and it will continue.  We have seen some success--we are reaching many more children than we were a year ago, or even six months ago.  But there are many more unchurched children out there, children who are not going to church or Sunday school anywhere.  They need to know the love of God, and they need to know the salvation that is available to them through belief in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  We need to continue to pray that God will help us reach those children.

            We’re not stopping that prayer emphasis.  However, our parish must be and is capable of doing more than one thing at a time.  Therefore, we’re starting a new prayer emphasis on people who are alone.  And before we go any farther, let me explain what I mean by that.

            Often, when we talk about people who are alone, our thoughts go immediately to shut-ins or single people.  That’s not what we’re talking about here.  Our prayer emphasis may include those people, but it is not limited to them.  It’s entirely possible to be married and have kids and still feel alone.  We can be surrounded by people all day and still feel alone.  We can know everyone in town by name and talk to them all when we see them and still feel alone.

            You see, being alone has nothing to do with how many people are around us.  It has to do with feeling that no one knows what’s going on in our lives and no one cares.  It’s feeling that I’ve got this burden I’ve got to deal with and there’s no one to share that burden with me.  It’s feeling that I’ve got this battle I’ve got to fight and there’s no one fighting it with me.  It’s feeling that I’ve got all kinds of things going on in my life and I have to deal with them all by myself, because there’s no one I can even talk to about them.

            You may have heard the saying,”Be kind, for everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”  It’s true, but simply being kind is not enough.  We need to be there for people.  We need to let people know that they are not alone.  We need to let people know that there is someone who cares, that there is someone who’s willing to share their burden.  That’s one of the reasons God created the church.  God knows that life is too hard for us to deal with by ourselves.  God knows that we need others to share our burdens and help us fight our battles.

            As I’ve talked with some people about this prayer emphasis, the question has sometimes come up, in one form or another, “What do you want us to do?”  I want to apologize to the people who’ve asked that question, because I don’t think I gave you very good answers.   I tried to answer you by suggesting some things we could do.  The things I suggested were not bad things, but they missed the point of what this is all about.

            The point of this is not to start a program or create an event in the church.  It is exactly what it’s called:  a prayer emphasis.  What I’m asking you to do--and what I’m going to do, too--is pray.  I’m asking us all to pray for the people who feel alone.  I’m asking us to pray with open, honest, sincere hearts.  I’m asking us to pray for God to help us, as individuals or as a parish, to find ways to be there for those people.

            I don’t know what those ways need to be.  But God does.  And God will answer our prayers.  I’ve said this before, but I have never known a time when I prayed for chances to serve God that God did not answer my prayer.  If we mean it when we pray, and if we keep our eyes open and our ears open and our hearts open, God will give us chances to be with people who are alone, and God will show us how to do it.

            Sometimes we think, “But what can I do?  I can’t solve anybody’s problems.”  And that may be true.  Often, there may be nothing we can do to solve anyone’s problems.  But often, people who are alone don’t want us to solve their problems.  They know we cannot do that.  They just need to know someone cares.  They just need to know someone is willing to be there for them.  They just need to know that they don’t have to fight life’s battles alone.

            So that’s what I’m asking us all to do.  Pray for people who feel alone.  Pray that God will help us find ways to be there for them.  Pray that we come together as churches and communities so that there is no one who feels that nobody cares about the battles they are fighting.  If we do that, we will be a lot closer to being the people and the parish that God wants us to be.