Alone in the Chaos (Friday Devotional)

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

- John 14:16-17

As I looked around the disheveled apartment, all I could see was how much work still needed to be done. It was moving day, an occasion Lindsey and I had been looking forward to for weeks—by the end of the day, we would be in a new apartment across town with more space and a better surrounding neighborhood. We’d spent the last few days diligently filling boxes in preparation for the move, trying to prepare as best we could. But within 10 minutes of Lindsey’s departure to work, all I could see was how much we had not packed. Every piece of furniture we owned, most of our kitchen supplies, all of our food, and a closet full of clothes, just to name a few things, were exactly where they had been a month ago. Standing alone in the middle of a messy room that needed to be bare by nightfall, I was completely overwhelmed.

My stress was on the verge of becoming panic when I heard a knock at the door. When I opened it, my brother was there ready to help, just as he had promised he would be. Minutes later, several friends arrived, and my mom wasn’t far behind. Now when I looked around the room—still full of stuff needing to be boxed up and carried out—the task no longer seemed nearly as daunting. There was still just as much work to be done as before, but one thing had changed: I was no longer having to do it all by myself.

Life is full of trials that bring grief, anxiety, and pain, but more often than not it is not the situations themselves that bring you to your knees. What drags you down is when you feel, as I did looking when I was looking around that chaotic apartment, like you have to bear the entire burden by yourself. Discomfort becomes despair when you feel your struggle is yours alone.

For the follower of Christ, one of the great blessings of faith is that you do not face any hardship alone. In every temptation and tribulation, the Holy Spirit remains with you as a constant source of encouragement, accountability, comfort, and strength, reminding you of both the rewards and the responsibilities of discipleship. Even when friends desert you, even when it seems like you can’t count on anyone but yourself, the Spirit abides with you.

God does not promise that his children will have a smooth passage through life’s storms, but He does promise that you will never have to sail alone. So when you feel weighed down by life’s burdens, may you be lifted up the Spirit, renewed by the assurance that God is with you even when no one else is.