My name is Aubree Nelson; I’m 19 years old, and sometimes I feel alone. I feel like no one around me can relate to growing up with no Christian friends, no one can relate to being the only woman in a room of male engineering students, and no one can relate to my struggles that I keep secret. But in the past few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of vulnerability. And I could preach a whole sermon on how important vulnerability is for our growth as believers because nothing good grows in darkness (in fact, I have), but for this blog, I want to talk about something that came from this focus area in my life. And that is this point: You Are Not Alone.
Simple, right? We hear it all the time, but for me, I don’t think I ever really believed it because there was always some way I could make it not applicable to my life. Because someone could say that I’m not alone, but that didn’t change the reality that growing up, I had no friends to talk to about anything related to Jesus. And it didn’t change that some guys didn’t believe I had what it took to be an engineer because I was a girl, and it didn’t change how I felt lying in my bed because guilt rang in my heart like a fire alarm. Surely, I was alone. Surely no one could ever understand what I was going through, and surely, I could never let anyone speak into my life, or give me advice, or pray for me. Because they just don’t get it. Right?
Well, as clichés go, I’ve been learning that I’m not alone. I thought I was the only one in my small sphere of people who had these struggles, but that didn’t make me alone. What made me feel alone was self-isolating because I didn’t think anyone would be able to help me, so I stopped them before they could even try. Not everyone can relate to or understand everything you go through, but everyone can relate to feeling alone in something. Everyone has been in a room and thought, “Wow, I’m the only one here who ______.” You fill in the blank, but whatever it is, you can either let it defeat you or you can see it as a strength. Am I often the only Christian, the only female engineer or minister, the only one with my specific struggle? Yes, but different doesn’t mean excluded.
If there is one thing the enemy wants believers to think, it is that they are alone. He wants us to believe there is no friend, no brother, no parent, and no God that would ever understand our struggles. However, the second we stop talking to others, and the second we isolate ourselves from the community and the God that helps us grow, the enemy has won. Understand that God knows you for who you are on the inside, that you are part of the body of Christ and something bigger than yourself! If God is with you, you are never alone. You may have your own unique struggles, but so does every single other person on Earth. And you cannot relate to everything someone else has gone through, and they cannot relate to you completely, but you can glorify the Father with one voice and one mind as different parts of the body.
You are only as isolated as you allow yourself to be, because the God we serve is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Don’t hear what I’m not saying; in my life, I have lost many friendships and relationships that I cared about deeply. I have suffered a great deal of grief and loneliness in their absence. I’m saying that even though you go through things no one around you can truly relate to, and even though you are surrounded on all sides by the enemy, and even though you feel alone, you are never alone because God is with you! Learning to be comfortable, whole, and content in His presence is something I still struggle with. I have a hard time not feeling alone when I’m not surrounded by people. But I know that no matter what I’ve been through, what I’m going through, who stands beside me, or who walks away, the Lord my God is with me. He continues to prove that He is faithful and I am not alone.
Psalm 139:7–10 (NIV) “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; If I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.”
By Aubree Nelson
