You Are Not Alone

“I felt God asking me to tell you, “You are not alone.”” I read this text bright and early one morning this past month. I was groggy from a long day of travel, anxious for the day ahead, and it was just what I needed to hear. My husband and I have done a lot of traveling together over the years for ministry, but this particular trip I was on my own. I traveled two time zones by plane, rented a car, and stayed in a hotel by myself. It was new, and for this newbie it was scary. But by his grace, the Lord used a friend to tell me that he’s with me, and despite how I felt, I was not alone.

Maybe it’s a silly example, because people travel alone all the time. Maybe I am presenting myself as tentative and unadventurous, but it reminds me that everyone has a different level of feeling alone. Maybe it’s traveling, but it also could be coming home to an empty house, having no friends on campus, or maybe it’s not having a shoulder to cry on. We all feel alone sometimes. But have no fear! We are in fact, not alone.

I am confident the bleeding woman in the book of Mark dealt with loneliness too. Suffering for twelve years with constant bleeding would have alienated her from people, as she was deemed unclean. She spent all her money looking for medical help, but the condition only worsened over time. I imagine her sitting in her home, surrounded by bloodied clothes, huddled in a chair, or in the corner, crying silent tears because there was no one to hear them. It must have been excruciating knowing she would find no healing, and therefore would live and die alone. But then she heard about Jesus! Mark said “she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe. For she thought to herself, “If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed” (Mark 5:27-28). She risked it all! With little reputation left, she threw fear to the wind in this one last ditch effort to find hope. Maybe he could do for her what he had done for others. 

Whether it’s in our own lives, or our friends, sometimes we need to throw caution to the wind and allow desperation to bring us to Jesus’ feet. We can be so concerned with what other people may think, or believe that nothing will ever change, that we refuse to even allow God the chance to show what he’s capable of. Fear breeds loneliness. But this woman. She threw fear out and replaced it with bold desperation for healing. Mark said, “Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition” (5:29). Her risk was worth it! She felt instant healing run through her core. Can you just imagine the hope that surged through her? Hope for a new life! The power of Jesus was (and still is!) real, and he swapped her condition for healing, exchanging her loneliness for a new life that no longer was burdened by an unclean status. “Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?” His disciples said to him, “Look at this crowd pressing around you. How can you ask, “Who touched me?” But he kept looking around to see who had . Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over”” (5:30-34). Friends, Jesus knew someone was healed that day, and in the process searched for her so that it wasn’t just a transactional encounter. He wanted a life-changing encounter with her that not only brought her healing, but declared “I see you.” She was in fact, not alone. 

We have people all around us who are silently suffering. Whether it’s illness, abuse, addictions, mental health, or something else, they suffer silently because they feel alone - they feel no one cares and no one is there to support them. Imagine if you allowed God to use what you already had in your hands to let them know they are seen. Whether it’s shoveling their driveway, bringing them a meal, hearing their story, or going to their kids’ basketball game, we can be the hands and feet of Jesus. Maybe they won’t have an encounter with him like the bleeding woman did, but because he lives inside YOU, they will have an encounter all the same. They will feel seen, they will feel heard, and they will find that they are, in fact, not alone.

Let’s be Jesus today.