Sunset & Skyline

      I dont know what it really is. Maybe its because God has gifted me with compassion, or maybe its because i feel like i might be able to understand, but for whatever reason, i feel a great sense of hurt for people that are lonely. Its been that way for most of my life. I got hit hard with this last week, when Haley Graham and i went to eat lunch @ the woodlands high school. It was just here and there; I would catch these kids sitting by themselves, just trying to enjoy their lunch, but you could tell something was going on. They would look around at all the kids socializing and having a good time. Probably wondering why they couldn’t take part; what was wrong with them, anyways?
     Man, it breaks my heart. Partly because i don’t think God wants us to be lonely like that, and partly because i know that despite this burden i have for the lonely, i have stood by and watched it happen for years and done nothing about it. It’s just a terrible thought to me; that these kids go to school lonely every day, and are judged because of appearance or demeanor or *insert other trivial thing here*.  Not everyone has had the opportunity to be born into a family where they can have killer clothes and a hot car…..maybe not even gifted with the ability to be a great socializer.
     But its not just in high school. I see it on campus all the time with professors and other students. I have seen it in churches. I see it in myself all the time; favoring the easier to look at, clinging to the more entertaining. It makes me think of verses in Matthew 25.

44″They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45″He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

     I hate to refer to people i see as being lonely as “the least of these”, but its the closest i can get. For all the times that i rejected and ignored the least of these, i have done it to Him. That is tough to swallow. I cant bear the thought of someone waking up and dreading going about their business cause they dont have anybody they can call up and lament to, or have a good laugh with, or complain about bad cafeteria food with.  Community is such a integral part of my life. How can anybody live without it? I just dont think that God would tell us to do things like confess our sins to one another and encourage and spur one another on if He wanted us to live lonely lives.
     God has given me these feelings for a reason. I dont understand why i see the lonliness that i see, and just sit and feel bad for them and do nothing. I think He wants that to look different. In the same way that the world rejected Jesus, the world rejects the least of these. I love and embrace Jesus; it only makes sense to carry that over; to love and embrace The Least.