Hearing anyone’s story of hardship and pain is never easy. Recently, someone shared with me her childhood and adulthood struggle with feeling rejected and abandoned by her parents, friends and God. As a child, after her parents were divorced, she lived with a foster mother who was abusive and treated her unkindly. Later, in her teens, she was reunited with her father when he remarried and a new family was formed. But, she still found it difficult to bond with both her father and stepmother. As a young adult, she moved away to another state to start a new life, living in hostels and in homeless camps and shelters for a while.

Lonely but Never Alone

Desperate to find food and housing, she was directed by a human services agency to a church that had a food bank and offered community meals. She went to the church, lonely and withdrawn, sitting in a corner by herself, when the pastor’s spouse (George) sat down beside her and expressed concern about her. He encouraged her to come back because he didn’t want her to feel lonely and wanted her to know that she was not alone in her journey. (She had been having nightmares that she was truly alone in the universe and abandoned by God and everyone.) Continue reading →