July 2008                                                     11th Edition

(Matthew 27:46) “My God, my God, why did you abandon me!”

Tune out the traffic and turn down the TV. The cry is there. You can hear their cries. You can hear them in the nursing homes among the sighs and the shuffling feet. You can hear them in the prisons among the moans of shame and the calls for mercy. You can hear them if you walk the manicured streets of suburban America, among the forgotten ambitions and aging homecoming queens. Listen for it in the halls of our high schools where peer pressure weeds out the “have-nots” from the “haves.”

Many of you have been spared this cruel cry.  You have been homesick or upset a time or two. But despair? Far from it. Suicide? Of course not. Be thankful that it hasn’t knocked on your door. Pray that it never will. If you have yet to fight this battle, you are welcome to read on if you wish, but I’m really writing to someone else.

I’m writing to those of you whose days begin and end with broken hearts and long nights. I’m writing to those of you who find a lonely person by looking in the mirror.  For you, loneliness is a way of life. The sleepless nights.  The fear of tomorrow. The unending hurt.

When did it begin? In your childhood? At the divorce? At retirement? At the cemetery? When the kids left home?  Maybe you have fooled everyone. No one knows that you are lonely. On the outside your smile is quick. Your job is stable. Your clothes are sharp. Your waist is thin. Your calendar is full. Your walk brisk. Your talk impressive. But when you look in the mirror, you fool no one. When you are alone the pain surfaces.

Maybe you have always been outside the circle looking in, and everyone knows it. Your conversation is a bit awkward. Your companionship is seldom requested. Your looks are common.  I have an important message for you.  The most gut-wrenching cry of loneliness in history came not from a prisoner or a widow or a patient. It came from a hill, from a cross, from a Messiah.

“My God, my God,” he screamed, “why did you abandon me!” (Matthew 27:46)

Never have words carried so much hurt.  Out of the silent sky come the words screamed by all who walk in the desert of loneliness. “Why did you abandon me?”  I keep thinking of all the people who cast despairing eyes toward the dark heavens and crying.”  And I imagine him listening. I picture his eyes misting and a pierced hand brushing away a tear. And although he may offer no answer, although he may solve no dilemma, although the question may freeze painfully in midair, he who also was once alone, understands.

From “No Wonder They Call Him the Savior”  by Max Lucado