Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. – Psalm 142:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 19, 2012): Psalm 142

I have friends that seem to be going through life alone. For some, it might have been their own fault. They have made a habit of simply pushing people away all their life, and now they are being given what they seemed to have desired all along – they are alone. For others it has been the circumstances of their lives, they have become ill or death has visited all around them – but the result is the same – they are still alone.

Part of the privilege of being in my position is that I sometimes get to stand beside people in the situations of life because there is no one else. And I have to admit that I have often wished that I could have been a better companion or advocate for them. But I have had the opportunity to stand beside them. The reality of living this life is that there are several times when all of us need someone to simply stand with us. And maybe one of the tragedies of life is that often the person that we have standing beside us are the ones that we have paid to be there (in the form of lawyers and doctors.) And they are not enough. We all need someone else just to stand with us.

David is still in the cave. He is still running from the animals – both the four legged ones and the two legged ones carrying weapons. He is at one of those moments in life, and he sees all of the people that are around him, depending on him (we need to understand that David is not likely to be alone here), but when he looks to the right of him – the place where the advocate or the defender would stand – that position was vacant. And he longed for the one that could stand in that place.

And I know that God is there – I believe that with every fibre of my being. But I also know that sometimes it is nice to have a flesh and blood person to stand up and defend us and be our advocate. That is what I believe that the church is intended to be – I know that there is a seed inside of the church to help it become precisely that, but I also know that sometimes we do not let that seed grow until it can produce for us its fruit. This is the very real challenge of the community; to stand beside, to defend and be the advocate for (the one who argues on behalf of) each other. My hope and my prayer is that we all have someone that stand on our right side – and that we all are taking that position on the right side of someone else.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 22:3-23