Alone in a Crowd

I had a disturbing dream last night.

I was attending a conference with a group of friends. Shortly after our arrival at the conference venue, I turned to find that my friends were gone and I was alone in a large crowd of people. I couldn’t see anyone familiar. Not to be deterred by the abandonment, I made my way to a row near the front of the auditorium and sat down beside a woman who appeared to be user friendly. She nodded a greeting in my direction, but then went back to her conversation with the woman on her other side. Within moments, my row of chairs filled up and it seemed that everyone around me knew everyone else. Except me. I made the comment that perhaps I should move to the end of the row so that they could sit in closer proximity to their friends. All of them happily agreed.

I was devastated.

I stood up and brushed past the entire row of people as they all moved themselves over. It didn’t matter that the chair on the end was more comfortable than the rest. It didn’t matter that the lady beside me offered an awkward, apologetic smile. I just wanted to go home.

Thankfully, this particular scenario was just a dream. It has never played out exactly like this for me in real life, but I’m sure it has for others. And I’ve experienced enough similar situations to know how it feels. All us of have.

There are people out there who are alone in the crowd. They are yearning for someone to approach them and be a friend. They need you.

Reach out. And then you won’t be that lonely one.

Jesus said this in Matthew 24:45. “I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.”