Greetings,

February is sometimes thought of as the month of Love… And why?

Primarily because of Valentine’s Day, of course. However, there are many that suffer from

not feeling loved, not feeling included, not feeling close to someone or something. A few years ago,

the church where my brother was attending was holding a service of reaffirmation of vows

for those in the church who chose to participate – this was to be held within the scope of a worship service.

On first hearing this, I thought this sounded like a good idea, but then he stated his problem with

such a service. You see, my brother’s wife had recently died after suffering with cancer for several years. He was alone. He was still suffering. He did not wish to sit and watch others celebrate (even though he was not resentful of their shared love, he just felt lonely from his terrific loss). So, I have always been reminded of that situation, to be mindful of all within the church..

Many suffer with sadness and loneliness like my brother felt. I wonder if you have ever asked the question, Does God...care about me?

First of all, God does care about you and loves you. That can be hard to believe in those times when we feel alone. Other times we may acknowledge God but feel like he is very difficult to connect with and far away.

This becomes even more difficult when life is filled with pain and heartache. God seems either distant or unloving and we can’t understand why he does not step in and make things better. Of course, this view assumes he isn’t helping. We typically fail to think that it may be even worse without him or that something even bigger than our current challenges may be happening. The simple reality is we live in a broken world that has been fractured by sin. This is complicated by the fact that God honors our free will and he may feel more distant because we choose to work things out on our own instead of turning it all over to him.

The thing we need to focus on is that God’s attitude towards us is one of complete love. He created us for relationship with him. He has died for our sins and offers complete forgiveness. His holy word is not meant to burden us with rules but rather to teach us what is good for us and how we can be at our best. God’s knows each of us at the most intimate level and has an eternal perspective. He works in ways we often don’t realize or understand. The question is whether we will trust in that and allow him to start with our current circumstances or whether we will decide to do it alone.