We all need to know, “we are not alone!”
My weekday mornings look the same: I push snooze, I push snooze again. I get out of bed, way too late and I make coffee. I try make my hair look less like a mop dipped in oil (try being the operative word here), I drink some coffee and I pack my bag. I eat half a piece of toast and I stumble out the door, my keys in my mouth, 3 bags on my arms and one hand waving a mascara. All is good.
That is, unless I’ve left my phone at home. That’s not good. My world crumbles. Whaaaat? No! I can’t Facebook in my breaks, I can’t send my friends cheeky Whatsapp messages and I can’t post my Instagram pictures from last night. My emotions declare emergency, I contemplate should I drive home to fetch it?
All this drama got me thinking, why am I so attached to my phone? Why, beside the inconvenience does this make me feel disjointed? I think back on how I sat in my chair at work staring at my blank computer screen thinking about the dismal prospect of a day without my phone and I realise without it I feel more alone.
When I was a teenager my biggest fear was that I would go to our Senior dance without a partner. I would spend hours awake at night mulling over how impossible it would ever be to recover from the inevitable social suicide that this would cause. I wondered, who would ask me and what would I do if nobody asked me?! I could not see life past that one event.
As for most people high school wasn’t easy for me. I was the very shy, sort of smart kid without a stitch of street cred. In my government school this put me somewhere between invisible and teacher’s pet, not prime real estate. I spent class time worried that nobody would sit next to me at break time and free time half-heartedly trying to be something I wasn’t so I felt part of a group. It was sad and looking back I can see it made no sense.
When I was at university I carried this fear of being alone with me
I was worried about sitting in lecture halls by myself. I graduated and started working and brought the same fear with me, I was worried that nobody would want to do things with me on the weekend and I would spend them in my house watching series reruns.
All humans are genetically designed to gain satisfaction from meaningful relationships with real people. There are mental and physical benefits to real human interaction and nobody, no matter how introverted or extroverted, can make it without connecting with others. Yes, we may need some alone time after a weekend away with the family, but not for too long. We all want someone to share in our boring every day moments and support us in the tough times. These days the phone in your pocket can provide the gratifying comfort of having a way to be heard and reach out to people.
As I’ve gained more life experience, it’s become important to me to believe in a God who hears me and to surround myself with people who like me for me. Do I still struggle with feeling alone? Yes. But, knowing that the creator of the universe believes in little me, means I’m not as scared of it as I used to be. When I lie awake at night and torture myself with all sorts of scary scenes in my head I now stop myself. “No,” I silently say. “You are not alone, even if it looks like it. You have a God who cares.”
Let me tell you, when you leave your phone at home and feel yourself freak out, it’s not the end of the world. When you sit by yourself at a coffee shop, it’s ok. Even if you don’t go out with a huge group of people on a Saturday night, it doesn’t mean your friends have disappeared. You’re a one in a billion and you’re going to be fine.
Click on the popup message or banner below to watch a video on how you can learn more about a God who promises you are not alone.