Same cliff different oceans

Recently something happen that made me feel like I was on a cliff, standing by myself.  I felt like I had been left completely alone.  That everyone else had moved on and I had gotten left behind.  I think we all have those times.  Times where we are standing on a ledge, alone, looking out over something.  Kind of like when you are looking out over the ocean.  The view can be beautiful if you stay focused on the horizon. But when we take our eyes off the horizon and look down we see sharp rocks and treacherous terrain.

I think at some point in our lives we all stand on that cliff.  The cliff is the same, but the ocean and the rocks below are different.  The cliff is loneliness, desolation, deep despair.  It is that point where we feel alone, where we believe no one else can understand how we feel.  That no one else has stood where we are, or has ever been there before.

Even though the cliff is the same the rocks below change.  It may be that you are the last of your circle to marry.  It may be that you have experienced a miscarriage or lost a child.  It may be depression. It may be infertility.  It may be divorce. It may be dealing with a child who has lost their way. It may be the loss of a spouse.  It may be dealing with aging parents.  It may be unknown constant pain.  It may be the guilt of abortion.  It is something that makes you feel as if no one else has experienced what you are going through.  Isolation.

It can be a lonely place.  A place you don't want to be, and a place you don't really want anyone to know you are.  Because it feels so selfish.  It feels so internal.  It feels so deep, and gut wrenching at the bottom of your core.

At that cliffs edge you make a choice.  You make a choice to focus on the rocks below or lift your eyes and concentrate on the horizon.  The rocks are always the easiest choice because your head is probably already down.  To seek the horizon takes effort, you have to physically lift your head up and lift your eyes.

But that is where God meets us.  When we look up.  When we seek his face.  When we say I can't do this alone.  When we allow him to, God fills that space of isolation.  But first we have to look up.

Psalm 123:1 "I LIFT MY EYES TO YOU, O GOD, ENTHRONED IN HEAVEN"