Daily pearls from the shore🫧

ALL LONELY TOGETHER

In the beginning of creation, God created man in His own likeness and made him to have fellowship. Even after creating man, he found man to be lonely and noticed the need for a companion. So, He created the woman and put the two together.

As we see, the idea has always been having someone, and having fellowship, and NEVER TO BE ALONE.
Companionship, or fellowship, is the innate need of every creature, and more so for humans.

Isolation was never the design; loneliness was never in the draft.
We are made to have friends, families, and communities.

But lately we are seeing a reverse picture. There is so much population, yet everyone is lonely. There are people everywhere- workplaces, schools, gyms, and festivals- but everyone is alone in the crowd.

People are worn out from carrying life alone. Lately, one of the biggest challenges that people are facing is finding like-minded life partners. Friendships are not meaningful anymore. Children feel left alone. Teens find comfort in screens. Adults are burnt-out with pressure.

Loneliness has become a greater global crisis than any other pandemic.

Simply put, there is no one to talk to. It is hard to find anyone who would listen.

 “As long as Moses held up his arms, the Israelites won, but when he put his arms down, the Amalekites started winning. When Moses' arms grew tired, Aaron and Hur brought a stone for him to sit on, while they stood beside him and held up his arms, holding them steady until the sun went down. In this way Joshua totally defeated the Amalekites.” (Exodus 17: 11-13)
This incident is simply a display of the need and the power of a support system.

Moses was keeping his arms up, and he did so for a long time. But eventually, he got tired. What did that lead to?
Defeat of the whole army.
This is how humans are falling apart in the present times. Carrying the weight of life, the pressures, challenges, struggles, emotions, and pains ALL ALONE.
What happens next?
 Aaron and Hur brought a stone for him to sit on.

What did they just do?
They comforted him in his physical tiredness. He didn’t have to leave the battlefield and hence his responsibilities.

And how do we see this in our lives?
People get exhausted and don’t find any support or comfort. They either want to leave and run away or just suffer burnout.
What did Aaron and Hur do next?
 They stood beside Moses.
Sometimes, even the presence of another person works like a miracle.
Imagine a wife working alone in the kitchen. It’s not the work that wears her down. It’s the feeling of doing it alone that catches up.
Now, consider the husband, or any other family member, standing next to her while she works. Observe the change in the atmosphere. We all can choose to stand with others in their routines, as friends to talk and laugh with, as comforters in the tough times, and as supporters in their needful hours.
 What Aaron and Hur did next was marvellous. They took Moses’ arms and held them for him, and they kept them steady till the sun went down.

This was the ultimate. In other words, they not only offered and reached out with comfort, help, and support, but did it till the end of the battle.
Such an awesome anecdote: a whole community won, a whole army won because of a simple gesture by two men reaching out to one weary man.
Where did it all start?
THEY SAW the army being defeated, and THEY NOTICED the one who was carrying it to victory. And that he was tired.
How many times do we see someone falling apart around us, in our families, in our friend circle, in our schools, and workplaces?
Can we not do something to help them?
A simple gesture of kindness, a hand of help, a word of prayer, and a moment of presence act like honey to a fainting person.
IT ALL STARTS WITH SOMEONE WHO MIGHT BE CARRYING IT ALL. ALONE.
And this is what is leading to the fall of communities in the present times.
We are already sitting with a major mental health crisis in the world. All because nobody talks to each other, no one bothers to be there for another, and no one is ready to carry each other’s burdens.

We have become so self-focused that we can't look beyond ourselves.
AND IT IS NOT ONLY THE LOSS OF OTHERS. We are all at a loss, too.
Every single person is a unit in a community. And a community needs every unit to function.
Imagine what it would look like if people had meaningful connections. Everyone would be helping others. Everyone would know they have some arms to carry them if they fall. Imagine children, teens, and adolescents knowing they can run back home when they feel vulnerable rather than taking refuge in addictions and self-sabotaging activities.

"Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6: 2)

Wouldn’t that be a nice world to live in?
Your presence matters to someone. Be there. Be together. BE VICTORIOUS.