We grow up hearing our parents, our teachers, and pretty much every one of influence to our impressionable minds that we are special. We heard it on the television programs we watched, and through the picture books we were surrounded by… and the worst is observed from my extensive time spent in English classrooms, those wonderful, gimmicky posters flaunting that idea around in short blurbs. But after 18, albeit short years, I have found that we in fact are not special, or unique. This great conclusion I have come to also might be the most beautiful aspect of the human condition; it means you are never alone.
Recently I saw The Diary of Anne Frank at my university theater, I was going in part because I had to go for my Theater Appreciation class, but also because this is a story that has always interested me. In the week leading up to our going to see the play my professor was challenging us to find a way to “empathize” or “relate” to the piece. After reading the play I knew this would be easy, I had already felt connected to the way Anne talks about the strength of her father, her love and need to write, and her love for adventure and good in this life. But as I was sitting in the audience almost crying and by the end with a pit in my stomach, my eyes had been opened to the fact that we as humans are truly all the same. I smiled as Anne was flitting around the room trying to be strong in an all too positive way receiving an annoyed look I’ve seen once or twice, butterflies flew to my stomach as she could barely contain her excitement twirling into her room after her first meeting with the boy she liked, Peter, and I couldn’t believe it when she spoke the anthem to my life, she does not want to just live day by day, but she wants “to be remarkable”.
I have also had this idea confront me in other aspects of my life; whenever I read anything by Robert M. Drake, recently talking with friends and also my relationship with Jesus. We as humans face many trials, and The Bible tells us over and over again to have joy in those moments, for there is nothing to fear, the Lords has his plans for your life “not to harm you” but to “prosper you”; yes these are all true, and I believe them with all my heart, but often times, I can still be overcome with stress/fear and sadness. It is in those moments of fear, and sadness when I feel most alone, though in my sadness I always try to go to the Lord, recently I found some pretty incredible things. John 11 shares the story of Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead, he went back to Judea for the purpose of raising Lazarus, though when he arrived and saw people he loved mourning John 11:35 tells us simply that “Jesus wept”, he knew that all would turn out good, but he still felt the immense sadness, he empathized with the mourners and cried. In Matthew 26:36-46, Jesus says to his disciples at Gethsamne “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” He then goes to pray, where he cries out to God our father asking “if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me” he was so weary in his distress that he was asking for his fate to be changed, though even still he is able to say “may your will be done”. He knows the plan for his life, yet he still felt so much pain as a result, but he shows us that Gods plan will prevail, and through that plan only good will come. But the pain is strong, and Jesus himself was isolated by his own disciples, as they fell asleep, so he took his pain, and feelings of isolation, and took them to God, just as we should do.
Jesus was sent to cleanse us of our sins, but he was also sent so that God our Father might understand our flesh. Jesus coming not only rid us of our sins, but it also secures the idea that we as humans are never alone. Jesus empathizes with us in our pain, because he himself has felt it too, he cried out to God for help and even cried out asking why. He was felt abandoned by his earthly friends, but he was never abandoned by his heavenly father, and still knew that the suffering was worth it, the pain is what brings about the beautiful plan for our life by teaching us lessons and building our strength.
Through the pain that builds us to the joy that overwhelms us and even the aspirations that propel us forward, we are not alone. At first this was unsettling, but then it became comforting. No matter where you are there is someone who has been there, felt that and there is someone who is feeling the same way. We were made to be different, in many ways, and those need to be celebrated, but that does not make you unique, everyone is different, yet the same in those differences. This paradox is why a piece of art, or a play, or a book can make you cry, its why we are able to build relationships and it’s the reason anyone has the opportunity to make an impact in this world, because at the end of the day we are all human, all being knocked out with pain, feeling alone, all rejoicing at our victories and we are all striving to become more than we were yesterday. Which is what makes the human condition, alone, special and unique.
