LOST AND ALONE
We were giving away free cotton candy at KidVenture. The children rushed to our booth with expectant smiles.
Except for a 4-year-old blonde-haired boy. His eyes showed fear: he’d lost his mama.
Even though he was surrounded by people, he couldn’t find his people, his mother and his brother. His bravery to climb the jungle gym and even his excitement to eat free candy had disappeared because he felt alone.
But ironically, aren’t we coached to be rugged individualists? Grow up to think for ourselves. Stand apart from the crowd. Go against the tide.
So why do we feel scared when we find ourselves alone?
Maybe because the advice is flawed. Maybe instead of bucking the crowd altogether, we just need to find the right crowd.
BY FAITH, THE PEOPLE . . .
As we walk through Hebrews 11 this month, we’re learning about faith-filled individuals. But were any of them following God totally alone? Or did they have a crowd of others going with them in the same direction? (Gideon had his 300; Barak had Deborah; Jephthah had the Gileadites; Samuel had Eli;…Hebrews 11:32)
Look whose faith is commended in these two verses.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
Hebrews 11:29-30 (NIV)
It’s the people. By faith, the people obeyed God together and saw the miracle. The people made it into this Hall of Faith.
All by myself, I assure you I would not have stepped into the Red Sea, with or without the waters parting around me (not even to take a selfie). (Exodus 14:21-22)
Would you have approached the walls of Jericho alone, blowing a trumpet along the way? Probably not! (Joshua 6:3-5)
Well, God didn’t ask them to do it alone either.
But with my people ahead and behind me, my faith might have been strong enough to walk forward on dry ground away from Egypt. And with your people marching with you, you might have spent six days circling the walls of Jericho and on the seventh given the victory cry.
FIND YOUR PEOPLE
“Follow the crowd” is still not blanket advice we give without caveats. But when the crowd is going the same direction you want to go, draft along with them, like a biker in the Tour de France this month. Sing with the choir. Contribute to the small group. Play on the neighborhood ball team.
Draw strength from the faith of others, and pray for theirs in return. Let their bravery awaken your courage, and your compassion stir them to greater service. Find grace through the group and kindness in community.
By belonging to a safe crowd, you can more easily develop into the individual God created you to be, living out your purpose to bring Him glory.
After all, the Father, Son, and Spirit themselves are a community, and we’re made in their image. We’re not made to do life alone.
Back at KidVenture, I asked the lost boy his mother’s name. He didn’t know it. Brother’s name? He wouldn’t say. I began leading him to the front desk but along the way, he suddenly ran to a woman’s leg and held on. He’d found his people and the light returned to his eyes, along with his faith to be brave and strong again.
And so it is with us. Surrounded by the people following Jesus, we can walk together by faith into miracles not experienced alone.
Find your people.
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
Philippians 3:17
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Follow the crowd. Good or bad advice? http://wp.me/p1Su7F-31i @DoNotDepart #ByFaith
Click here to tweetWalk with others into miracles not experienced alone. http://wp.me/p1Su7F-31i @DoNotDepart #ByFaith
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When have you been braver or done more good with others than if you’d been alone?
Who do you include as “your people”?
Let’s talk in the comments.
That was a wonderful analogy, Lisa. We get to thinking we’re islands, but it is our Father that gives us everything, our strength, our loved ones, our faith. Only in our humility can we find His truth. Thanks for the reminder of our calling, and who it’s with.
Sometimes I can be too much of an island–until I get scared and discover that I need people around me! The faith of others has often spurred me on to step out in faith when I wouldn’t have otherwise. Thanks for being part of “my people”, Floyd. :) Your faith always encourages me.
“All by myself, I assure you I would not have stepped into the Red Sea, with or without the waters parting around me…” These words made me soul search. Would I have done it? With others, probably yes. Alone… only as far as I could still safely reach the shore if the waters came tumbling back in. And this must tell a lot about me. (Big sigh.) But this!! “Surrounded by the people following Jesus, we can walk together by faith into miracles not experienced alone.” God placed us together for His glorification and our good… Together we are the body. He wants us to share, encourage, and help one another. Thank you for this reminder, Lisa!
Thanks, Ali. I’m glad God knows what He’s doing. So true what you say here: “God placed us together for His glorification and our good…” Without the strength of others around me, I’d have missed so many wonderful things in my life as well as opportunities for God to be honored. All of us are needed to function properly as the body.
Love this! The comic is great, too!
The comic makes me smile too, Elizabeth. If they’d had our technology, we’d have Instagram pictures of manna. I’ve always wanted to know what it looked like. :)
I do tend to be more of a loner, and once did a post on the need to be able to walk with God alone (as when David encouraged himself in the Lord when everyone was against him and Elijah stood up for God against the prophets of Baal – he didn’t know then about God’s remnant). But I do acknowledge the truth here as well – by and large God did create us to do all those Biblical one-another passages with other people. And sometimes when I do get out of my little introverted corner to interact with others, I realize it’s not so bad after all and I should do it more often. :-)
Your point is well-taken, Barbara–there is definitely a need for both: times to walk alone and times to stay with the group.
I can gravitate toward aloneness as well. Sometimes it’s just easier to do things myself; I always hated group projects in school. ha. But like you, I also have found other times when I discover it’s not so bad after all to be with the group, even if the “group” is just one other person to go with me somewhere that I’d be too nervous to go alone. :)
Love this, Lisa! My people are my church first and foremost. That’s where we can find community and bond together, feeling the strength when we meet corporately. God has called churches to do works in their cities and inside it’s doors, but it takes the people to really come together to walk in faith together to answer this call.
Thanks, Kelly. I also find great strength in my church community. Our corporate gatherings remind me every single week that I’m not alone in my walk with Christ; there are lots of others who are excited and intentional about following Him.
And I don’t want to take for granted. Not everyone gets to be around such a community with such ease and opportunity. We are blessed!
Love that illustration at the top with the cell phones taking photos of the walls of water, etc.! I think that would totally be me! My husband gives me much strength… I’m so glad that God led us together.
That’s awesome, Esther. It’s wonderful to have a spouse that you can draw strength from. I feel the same way about my husband. I know not everybody has that though, so I don’t want to ever take that blessing for granted!
If there was ever an example of “christian” quackery, this page wins first prize hands down. Since when are God’s commands “blanket advice”? What is described as a “safe crowd” is in reality legalistic, self-righteous, and self-glorifying- all condemned by God as being EVIL. To refer to the Godhead as a “community” is as small-minded, evil, and slanderous as any one statement can be. Junk theology in “christianity” is nothing new, this site is pure rubbish.