Abandoned?

Remember the movie Cast Away? Tom Hanks’ Character has been in a plane crash and is the only survivor stranded on a tropical island. Eventually, he finds a volleyball that washed up to shore from the wreckage. The ball, through a random course of events, becomes his only companion, Wilson. He is able to keep his sanity by talking through his troubles and fears with Wilson. At one point in the movie Wilson is swept out to sea and Tom Hanks’ character freaks out with the sudden realization he’s all alone on this island. He has no one to talk to; no one to share his plight with. The only “person” he has been able to talk to for years is now gone. The impact of being truly alone nearly crushes his sanity.

The other day I felt a little like Tom Hanks; alone on an island. I had recently received a short rash of bad news, and I was looking for someone to talk to. I picked up my phone and started going down the list of friends. Not a single one picked up their phone when I called. It seemed that I was all alone. Like all negative thoughts do, this feeling seemed to escalate. It quickly jumped from, “What a bummer I don’t have a buddy that can talk right now.” to “Man I am completely alone on this planet. I don’t have a single friend. Has God even abandoned me?” Have you ever felt this way? I knew it was completely irrational, but that’s how I felt.

After about three days of this, I read something in my daily bible written by David in Psalm 22. The Psalm is written as a song, that starts with, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” This was exactly how I was feeling. I read through the rest of the song and it seemed to say exactly what my heart was feeling. When I was finished reading the song I realized it was also a prophetic Psalm, meaning that David wrote about things that would happen to Christ. For example, the last line of the Psalm reads, “They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.” This is one of the things that happened to Jesus while he was on the Cross. These prophetic lines, along with the opening line of the Psalm, got me thinking about my aloneness in a different perspective.

I knew God was telling me that no matter how I feel, I am NOT alone. Look at the life of David. This man who had such a longing for knowing God that he was called ‘a man after God’s own heart.’ This man must have known God’s presence. Yet at times, even he felt alone enough to cry out “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” Then there’s the situation with Jesus himself. Clearly he felt the presence of God in his life at all times. Surely he felt intimate with God in ways that I can only imagine. Yet, in the darkest hour of his life he cries the same words, “MY GOD, MY GOD why have you forsaken me!” These two men, as close to God as they were, still had times in their lives where they felt abandoned by God.

This knowledge gave me an objective view of my own situation. I was not being chased by a kings army wanting to kill me like David was. I was not being crucified for the sins of all mankind and facing hell on the other side of death like Jesus. I was simply struggling with life not going the way I would have liked. Even in my trivial experiences, though, it dawned on me that the times of feeling abandoned are, like with David and Jesus, necessary for the completion of God’s plan in our lives. He is guiding us through these situations to further develop our character and deepen our relationship. There are good times to come. Losing Wilson forced Tom Hanks’ character to get off the island, which led to his rescue. David became one of the greatest kings Israel has ever known. Jesus was raised from his death saving all mankind from their sin and then went back to heaven to reign over heaven and earth with God. Those times when we feel furthest from God seem to be the dark before the dawn of times we feel closest to Him.