I can still remember it as if it were yesterday, my first time at college all alone. I was a freshman in orientation along with all the other lost, but overly excited freshmen ready to attack the new school year but completely lost and oblivious to life. At this time, my parents had just left Maranatha from dropping me off, my twin brother who I had spent everyday with from birth was 1,000 miles away at a different college, Pastor Andrew and Ms. Rachel were still starry-eyed for each other in high school in Kansas, and Ms. Christi and I were not dating yet; however, I really liked her.
I sat there surrounded by 300 new acquaintances. As some of you know, I am an introvert at heart so imagine being stuck in a room full of people I do not know and being recently left on my own for the first time.
Needless to say, I was lonely and discouraged.
My twin brother and I had done everything together up to that point. We played sports together, in the same class, worked together, and believed we were the life of the party in our small Christian school.
Dr. David Jaspers, President of MBU at the time, spoke to us from Proverbs 18:24:
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
My mind kept coming back to the time spent with my twin brother and how he was now so far away. The Scripture worked in my heart to show me that no matter how alone I felt, or how discouraged I felt, Jesus is always there to confront the lonely and discouraged heart. I am reminded of David in I Samuel 30:6:
And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
It does not get much more lonely or discouraging than that, does it! Having your own men wanting to kill you because they had just lost so much. What was David’s response? He encouraged himself in the Lord. He understood our promise, “a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” What about you? Are you lonely? Are you discouraged?
We all go through times of loneliness and discouragement, but the Lord does not want us to stay this way.
Proverbs 18:24 and I Samuel 30:6 remind us that the Lord is our answer to these issues. Are we trusting Him for our encouragement and friendship? I could not have my twin with me at college, but he was never more than a call or text away. The Lord is much closer if we take advantage of the power of prayer.
Comments