“Many things create islands of people’s lives. We all find ourselves in situations where we feel isolated from others because we think they cannot truly understand our circumstances. As a result, a feeling of loneliness descends… soul-loneliness. It makes me cry out to be connected to someone who understands without words or explanation.” — Jennifer Rothschild
In the movie Castaway, starring Tom Hanks, he is stranded on a deserted island alone for several years with no human contact. In his desperation for someone to talk to, he draws a face on a volley ball that has washed ashore and names it “Wilson”. It is a poignant picture of how desperately we don’t want to ever feel completely alone and separated from human interaction.
Unfortunately, in our world today, many people live each day feeling as if they are on a deserted island – all alone in their pain, sadness, grief and suffering. They desperately need to be discovered and rescued!
At other times they may feel just as alone in the midst of being surrounded by people; people who don’t care, who don’t make time, who are insensitive and who don’t reach out. Sometimes, they just don’t choose to respond to the SOS signals that are being sent out by the one in pain. This can sting that much more for the sufferer because it is common knowledge that we choose to make time for the things that are the most important to us. This reinforces for the one that is in need that his neediness precludes him from being a high priority on anyone’s list of where to delegate their time.
Do you know of anyone in your life that needs to be discovered and rescued?
“Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble.” ~ Proverbs 17:17 (MSG)
Reflections on DESERTED
We were born to be in relationships. God created us to have fellowship with Him but He also created us to need relationships with others. We have an inherent need for being connected with other human beings. We need to be wanted and we need to be needed. God refers to believers as parts of a body. All of our body parts are connected in some way. People are meant to be part of a body…a family that loves and supports each other. God would not create us with that need and then not supply that need. When our emotional needs are unmet, either there have been hurts in the past where people followed sinful choices that hurt us and we have never healed from those past hurts OR the people that God intended to meet those needs are not doing what God is calling them to do.
Solomon said, “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun and, indeed, all is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1:14) Vanity has been defined as “excessive pride in one’s own abilities.” We can invest our time and talents in ministry and obedience to God for eternity or we can choose to have nothing to show for our life in the end. Unfortunately I have not only observed self-centeredness in others, but I have been self-centered myself. I have sometimes sought temporary worldly pleasure instead of yielding to the Holy Spirit’s promptings to serve someone else. In the end, when I have done that, not only have I hurt others but I have hurt myself.
Nothing is more rewarding or satisfying than surrendering to the leading of the Lord, and knowing that God has loved and ministered through you. The sweetness of a relationship where both of you sacrifice for each other produces trust and a loving environment.
Will you seek the satisfaction of serving God the way that God is calling you to serve? Or are you going to settle for worldly pleasure that has no eternal value and brings only emptiness?
Prayer for the hurting person:
Lord,
Help this person who feels deserted to know that You see their pain. You have not forgotten them. You care about everything they are feeling. Send other believers into their life to be a shoulder to cry on or a hand to help pull them up when they fall. Let Your love be lived out in others so that they will see that You have not deserted them…that You are always there and that You understand the need for “skin” and a person they can touch and see sometimes.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Prayer for the helper:
Lord,
Help me to see people…really see them. Help me to pause and look at them individually and help me not to look away when there is pain or despair in the depths of their eyes. Give me Your compassion that You had when You wept for Jerusalem and their lack of spiritual understanding, and when You wept with Mary and Martha in their emotional pain. Help me to be drawn by Your Holy Spirit and to be obedient and self-sacrificing in my responses to others. May I trust You to multiply my time when I obey Your promptings to serve unexpectedly.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
