I have never quite felt like I belong.
Growing up I had friends but there were always groups of friends who would regularly hang out. I never seemed to get those invitations.
Even before I moved to this new city, away from the close-knit community that had become my norm, I was feeling lonely. As I look back on my life, I realize something.
I have always felt a sense of loneliness.
As I’m adjusting to life in a new city, I desperately want close friends. I want people in my life who care about the details, who will take me seriously when I am upset about something silly. People who know me well enough to know that my emotions run much deeper than I let on. People who in turn will also lean on me.
Now, I know a part of this is that I was created for eternity and my whole life will be spent longing for Heaven. But this has something more as well.
I want to go on adventures. To hike and play and laugh. To have people who are “my people”.
Today, the thought of spending another Saturday completely alone at home was crushing. All I wanted to do was go on some adventure. So I did.
I went for a hike I’d never been on, all alone.
Maybe it is being in nature or maybe it is spontaneity, but there is something about adventure that makes my soul come alive and sing. As I perused the trails of this newfound wilderness, suddenly being alone didn’t feel lonely. It actually felt exhilarating!
I could stop whenever I wanted to go climb around on the rocks. I could hike as slow or as fast as I want. I could take whichever trail at my whimsy.
A Bible verse that I’ve been fighting to believe in this stage of loneliness is “and surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mat. 28:20).
Even when I feel utterly alone, I know this is true. God will never leave me. And His plan for my life is so much better than I could ever imagine! When I look back at the times in my life where I was on a very different page than God about what was best for my life, I can now say that I am so grateful things went God’s way instead of my own way.
Today served as a good reminder for me that God is always with me, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Jesus said he came so that we can have life, and life in abundance (John 10:10).
Instead of sitting in my aloneness feeling lonely, I’m going to take that aloneness and go live life to the full! I will go on the adventures I want, alone with my God, and I now see it will be thrilling!
I don’t know where the adventures will take me, but there is only one way to find out!