I attend college at Grand Canyon University, and every Monday we have chapel. This week the topic was about loneliness and it sparked something within me and made me think about things in a different way.

Every person experiences loneliness at some point in their life. It seems like it is an inevitable feeling that is just a part of life. In my opinion, it is one of the worst feelings that someone can experience. Unfortunately, there will always be stages in our lives where we will go through a time of loneliness. It is the worst feeling to be surrounded by a group of people and still feel lonely. Everyone has different circumstances that contribute to how they are feeling.

Education is a time when everyone goes through a stage of loneliness. When in school, you have to learn how to make friends and be around others. However, this can be extremely difficult for a multitude of reasons. As a result, it can become quite easy to become isolated and then become lonely.

As a Christian, whenever I am going through something, I know it is important to lean on God and know that he is with me, but it can be hard to remember that. In our chapel this week, the speaker spoke of loneliness, and how God understands loneliness. He then went on to explain how Jesus knew what loneliness feels like. He mentioned how Jesus knew his twelve disciples, his closest friends, were not going to be there for him when he was going to be crucified. Jesus also knew that one of his disciples was going to deny even knowing him. How would you feel if one of your close friends completely acted like they never knew who you were? The last example the speaker gave of how Jesus felt loneliness was when Jesus went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane right before he was going to be taken to be crucified. As he and his disciples are praying, they all fall asleep instead of praying for him. That has got to sting.

This was something that I had never really thought about. I have heard of people saying, "God can't understand what I am going through because he has never been through it" and I have had those thoughts before, but not specifically with loneliness. It was simply something that I had never thought of. Hearing the speaker explain this really made me think. It was an important reminder that God will be able to help me through anything I do because he understands it all and will be there to help me through it.

The enemy wants us to feel alone and isolated. The enemy wants to create this disconnect so that he can strike, but it is vital to remember that God will never leave you nor forsake you, be strong and courageous, and do not be afraid as written in Deuteronomy 31:6. Whenever these waves of loneliness hit, you have to remember that you are never alone. God is there for you. There are always people you can talk to whenever the feeling of isolation happens. You have to ignore the lies that you are alone because it is simply not true. There are things you can learn in that lonely season, and because it's a season, it won't last forever.