Isolation- Part 1

The past four weeks i have been surrounded by lots and lots of people. I'm just home from camp with over 120.  And yet if there is one thing God has been trying to teach me, it is this, i am isolated. I am alone. Surrounded by the noise of many, i am alone. Yes i had friends, and even close friends on the teams i was part of. And yes if you checked i have 750+ friends on Facebook, i know people from many different countries and i will be busy catching up with friends each day of this incoming week. But still I say i am alone. I know i have isolated myself, and i have been isolated by others, isolated from groups and by some who know my heart more than most. What about you? Maybe it all began for me back in September with starting university, and moving to Belfast. Before the summer i had an interview (or more of a chat) with Barry, a chaplain where i live. He asked me this question.

"Would you say you are dependent on the Hub?"

The depth of the question shocked me, i considered it for a while. I came up with only one response. One that scared me. "Yes"

I did not want to say that i was dependent on the Hub, God is the only thing i should be dependent on, He should be the one I depend on, but yes in a sense i am. Why? Because if i had not lived there this year i would have been alone, i would not have had the community i did, i would have missed out on the closest friendships of the past year and i wouldn't have had the same time to spend with God. I was a little ashamed to admit that i 'needed' the hub until Barry told me this:

Even the disciples were not sent out alone, but in pairs. (Mark 6:7)

That one thought, one sentence has been stuck in my head since. And God has continued patiently to teach me and to rebuke me on how we are to live as a community. The first thought: we are not sent out alone. Not only are we given His Spirit, 'the Helper' but we are to walk alongside one another. We, followers of Christ are to live life for Him together. Simple, yet in a world were loneliness shouts out loudly, if we became this community what would happen? how would peoples attitudes change of the church?