Sense of Being Alone

A few major influences in my life have been leading their congregations through in-depth studies of Philippians…So I follow..

I’ve been getting stuck at the beginning of Chapter 2…

"2:1 - Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic? 2:2 - Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose."

It’s hard not to put the burdens of the individuals seeking assistance through NeighborLink directly on my shoulders, especially when they call and I speak to them directly. Anytime someone else asks me for help, I feel completely compelled to do what I can to help them. And just about every time, I feel completely inadequate to help them. The need is always more than I can handle myself. Either the work is just too vast or I have no idea how to help them.

I then think to NeighborLink and think, surely there are people that I can get to help to only find it being difficult to connect with everyone and especially to compel someone I don’t know to help and help pretty quickly.

So, if I’m honest, sometimes it doesn’t feel like there is any encouragement from belonging to Christ because in doing so, I responding as I think he would to the need by being compassionate. Compassion weighs on your soul due to the very nature of the situation causing you to be compassionate.  You feel the pain and suffering of the person or situation. Just embracing Christ doesn’t seem enough sometimes..

The right response I guess would be that this is the exact situation when we need God to intervene on our collective behalf to bring justice and equality to the situation. It’s hard to die to self, claim helplessness, and then rely on his supernatural power to intercede on it all. But it’s the only way….