Away But Not Alone

My wife has been away at a weekend ministry convention. She will have been gone four days tomorrow. This also meant that I had the pleasure of watching our daughter for a few days. Actually, on Thursday she stayed with a neighbor from our church. Then when I got home we went for a walk around the neighborhood and spent the rest of the evening crawling around the house eating leftovers from the fridge and hanging out. Friday was much of the same and then a youth ministry planning meeting for our upcoming Fall Retreat (which I’m increasingly looking forward to… hope our students are getting pumped). When we got back Alethia had bath time and then was out like a light. Saturday we slept in til about 9:22am (I like to set my alarm for random times rather than plain round times like 9:20. That’s just me). It was good to sleep in since I was up til 2:30 reading and watching a bunch of random things on the television. Anyways, later on in the afternoon I took Alethia up to her grandparents where she’s staying for the night. She was having a ball attempting to ride her tricycle before I left. When I got back to the house I cut the grass while listening to Matt Redman’s “Face Down” album on my ipod. Oh yea, all through this weekend were about 30 text messages back and forth from my wife saying how much we missed and love each other.

I write all that to say this: My wife was away but I was never alone. I appreciate the fact that we have neighbors and church friends who babysit our daughter. I love living close to family to see them and be a part of our routine life. I am thrilled to be a part of weekend ministry planning’s and praying for God to use our ministries to expand His kingdom. Even more, I am overwhelmed that God’s Spirit fills my life and never leaves me alone. God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” What an amazing promise to embrace, recognizing I will never be alone because of my faith in Christ.

The next time your spouse goes away on a trip, or your kids are out for the evening or perhaps you are away from everyone you know feeling alone in a college dorm, remember to cultivate relationships with others. Go out and meet new friends. Even more, spend some time with your Heavenly Father. He longs to be with you and for you to know Him in deeper ways than you can ever imagine. When you have Jesus you really are never alone.