YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE

We are sometimes thrust into situations in life where we convince ourselves that we are the only ones that are going through a particular predicament. This is a bad trick we play on ourselves and a lie. First, there are too many people on the face of the earth for the odds of someone, not having gone through the exact or at least similar issue. Second, if you consider all of human history, then our complaining of the “only one” really gets ridiculous.

I don’t mean to discount the feeling itself. I have had this feeling, but it is not based on truth. The feeling is a self-pitty cloud, if you will, that blinds us to what is really happening around us. And if we buy into the lie of exclusivity in a problem, then feelings, NOT based on fact, can arise to complicate matters. Feelings of shame, depression, bitterness and so forth enter into the picture.

The key is to recognize our feelings as our emotional response to what we are experiencing and let them run their course, but Do Not allow them to run us or our decisions about the situation at hand. I know, I can hear many of you saying, “Easier said than done.” While this is true, we have help.

Life is about relationships. We need to learn to lean on those relationships when our emotions may be directing us into making a decision that should have some reasoning included. Balance is needed in the way we think and operate. If the left-side of life gets weighty, we will be pulled off track in that direction. Same for the right-side of life. If the weight of life is in the top of us we are top heavy and will eventually crash and fall. And if the load of life is in the bottom of our daily journey, we can get stagnant and unproductive.

True, we need God with every breath we take. However, He made relationship(s) so that we would trust and rely on one another. We need each other for hearing out our thoughts. We need each other for listening to our heart or emotions. We need each other for the balancing of the two. We need each other to remind us – You Are Not The Only One.