United by....

Yesterday in church I felt very alone. I hate that feeling. I was surrounded by a thousand people, and yet I felt isolated. The issues and situations in my life that get me down were really getting me down.

And then we sang "Blessed Be Your Name." If you don't know this song, you need to check it out. I first learned this song about a month before my mother died. The song declares praise for God determinedly, despite the struggles and pain of this life.

I didn't sing the first verse of the song because I knew I'd start weeping. Not just crying--sobbing. I waited till the chorus to join in. My spirits lifted. Life may not always be good, but our God is. God has always cared for me.

As the congregation continued into the second verse, I began to look around. As I usually do when our church sings this song, I noticed both men and women wiping tears from their eyes. Oh, that's right! I thought to myself. You can't tell what's going on inside a person just by looking at them. These people hurt, too. We all hurt.

And I didn't feel isolated anymore. At least not as much. We are united in the pain of this life. On the surface, that doesn't look like a very comforting verse. But it is. We long for someone to understand us.

And our Savior, the One who truly unites us, walked this earth. He knows what it's like. As I remembered this, my feelings of loneliness evaporated some more. I reminded myself that He unites all His followers in Him.

Since my mother's death, I've struggled with the concept of family. When such an important person is gone, it's hard to feel like a family is still in one piece. So yesterday, as I stood in one gathering of God's family, I thought to myself that we all--God, Jesus, the Spirit, and all Christian--must long for the day when we are all united in the joy of eternity.

"...I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:14-19).