You are not alone.

We’ve never been more connected – at least that is what we are told.

In a moment I can send glowing words on a screen – pixels, data, 1s and 0s – to almost anyone, almost anywhere. You are no doubt reading this right now on a screen as you wait for coffee or nurse your child or wait to hear back from the doctor.

In any given moment, I can see regular updates from college classmates and read the 3 am thoughts of celebrities on social media. I can ‘like’ your dinner, your grandkids, your vacation, your reflection on the world’s news as soon as you post them on your account.

On the surface, we have never been more connected. And yet, this digital connection only carries us so far. There is still this longing in our fleshly heart to be near the beating heart of another. There is still that primal need buried deep in our bones to be seen and loved by another. We still wake up in a sweat, convinced that we are the only ones on this planet of eight billion with our specific problems or worries or responsibilities.

What rose up in you when you read the first sentence of this eDevotion?

You are not alone.

Did those words resonate? Did they land like the long hoped-for response to your heart’s cry? Do they seem too good to be true because your life experience seems like proof of the opposite?

Regardless of your initial reaction, hear this truth: You are not alone.

This is the root of our faith. This is the outrageous Good News of the Gospel. We are not alone – in our failures, in our despair, in our lack of faith. We are not alone when our resources run out or when those we love leave.

The poet David Whyte writes, “You are not a troubled guest on this earth,/you are not an accident amidst other accidents.”

What I know is that in this very moment as you read these words, God is with you. God is as close to you as your next breath. God has called you into being and is holding your cells together through the sheer power of His love for you.

The God that was made man in Jesus Christ is not Jiminy Cricket who promises to make all our problems go away. No, God’s name is Presence – I Am, I will be with you, I am in your midst.

You are not alone.

The oldest trick of the devil is to try to get you to hide; to convince you that you are alone and that God has left you to fend for yourself. We are called to remember what Jesus – with his human heart that beat as he walked the shores of Galilee – spoke to his disciples. That same Jesus is alive in this moment and speaking to you now:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27

“I will not leave you orphaned.” – John 14:18

“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:20

You are not alone.