Awake SydneySample

Never Alone

I remember years ago when my girlfriend tried to break up with me…

It was like a scene from a movie – the wind was blowing her tousled hair, Celine Dion was playing in the background, and I was looking at her looking at me looking at her. She tried to tell me we should just be friends (yes she totally tried to #FriendZone me) and all of a sudden I felt like she had laid a heavy one on me. I couldn’t breathe, the sky went dark, and my heart was broken.

It was in that moment I ran to a place of isolation and loneliness. I didn’t answer people’s calls for days, as I was completely heart broken and the only way to deal with it was BY MYSELF! I couldn’t bear the thought of losing my dream girl who I’d loved since I was seven. That’s right, SEVEN!!!

The good news is that we didn’t break up & I ended up marrying her – BOOYAH!

Nonetheless I think it’s indicative of life, when we face challenges or problems, we think the best way to work it out is alone. 

In Mark 5:25-34 (NIV) there was a woman who suffered with terrible bleeding for 12 years. This condition left her isolated and segregated from community because she was seen as “unclean”. One encounter with Jesus and she is not only completely healed, but restored into the community that she had been shunned from for 12 years. 

When we begin to understand what Christ does for us, we begin to realise that He does so much more than forgive us for our sins. When we encounter Jesus He connects us to a community that loves and supports us, regardless of our current situation or circumstance. 

Mother Theresa said, “The greatest disease in the World today is not tuberculosis or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness - is love.

In a world where loneliness is becoming an epidemic, God is the cure, and He wants to declare through us “YOU'RE NEVER ALONE" and restore us back into right relationship with Him and with those around us.

We were created for community!

Peter Toganivalu. 

Youth & Young Adults Australia, Young & Free Global - Hillsong

www.hillsong.com