“I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt 28:20b)
There are nights when silence feels heavier than grief. You sit in a room full of light, yet the shadows are inside you. You reach for your phone, scroll past faces, words, and noise – and still, no one really sees you.
In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General warned that loneliness can kill. The isolation we treat as harmless carries the same risk as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. Along with that comes the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. Fifteen. Imagine that each puff a reminder that the heart cannot thrive without connection. So does each moment spend in loneliness.
But loneliness isn’t always a choice. Sometimes life leaves you stranded – a house once full of laughter now echoes with memory. The one who used to share your days is gone, and those who remain are far away. No one noticed your SOS message. You have your dog, but you still grieve. You survive, but the ache stays.
Yet even here, even now, a whisper breaks through: “I am with you.”
I want to believe that. I want to rise again – to step out of the fog and reach for life.
This is my prayer.
Father, I confess I am weary and afraid of my own silence.
Teach me to reach out. I want to live again.
Remind me that your presence is not a memory but a heartbeat within me.
I do not want to drown in sorrow.
Make me whole.
I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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