Alone

I was listening to Alone from Shai Linne's album Storiez last night.

I lost it on the second verse.

I was a faucet tap by the third.

There is no question about the good that comes out of trials. But the pain of those trials are a reality as well. We're not anesthetized by God to become numb to the pain. If we were numb to the pain, we'd be numb to the joy as well.

It seems like my life is a coming together of opposites. On the one hand, there is hurt and loneliness, and yet there is joy and fellowship in Christ. There's rejection, and yet I am accepted in the Beloved. Sometimes I feel very alone, but there is One who will never leave me nor forsake me. Can I take another step, but then grace is poured out to go on in joy.

But if my life is the intersection of opposites, what was it like for Jesus Christ? God and man, perfect yet coming to seek sinners, holy and righteous yet made sin on my behalf, beloved of the Father yet stricken by God, always one with God yet cut off for those three hours so I would never be alone again. His life on earth was beyond an intersection of opposites. It's completely off the scale. The contrast can't even be measured

I know that God has and is bringing healing, but I wonder if the healing, at least in this life, is not as though the pain never existed. In that day, He will wipe every tear from our eyes. But for now, maybe God allows the vestiges of the pain and the hurt to remain as the lens that magnifies His grace, His love, His kindness to someone who doesn't deserve it.