Alone in Arkansas

[deacon blues]

Here I am alone in Arkansas on the banks of the Little Red River. I'm next to a glowing hot campfire in the grey light of the full harvest moon. The crickets chirp around me and a nearby Bard owl asks his nightime question from the tops of stately oaks. The contrast of the heat from the fire with the coolness of the Autumn air relaxes me. I sit here reflecting.

I look ahead of me and there is a clearing made visible by moonbeams. As the owl calls again, I think about how solitary I feel. I wish someone was here with me. I wish I could talk to someone, anyone...

The men in my group enjoyed a day of travel, fellowship, fishing, eating, watching baseball and football, joking, laughing, conversing, winding down. They're all asleep. I am wide awake. The lateness of our scrumptuous meal evidently has me up. It could be the two large glasses of iced tea I drank with the meal and all of the caffeine.

Whatever the case, I long for something, someone. In the moment I feel that, listening to the nocturnal king of the treetops calling, I have a flash of thought: wouldn't it be something wonderful if the Lord materialized in that clearing ahead of me and came walking toward me and sat down with me and we just talked?

Like how he tangibly came to Abraham along with two angels and He sat down, ate with Abe, talked with Abe next to a fire, told Abraham things that changed his life forever. That kind of appearance.

Like when He showed up when Jacob was searching for answers in the night time, and wrestled with Jake until the breaking of the dawn? Jacob was never the same after that encounter. I could go for just the verbal wrestling match however, rather than a physical one with God.

Like when Moses went up into the mountain and God passed by him and showed him a portion of his glory.

Like when He came to this earth 2,000 years ago and sat in this same moonlight, warming Himself by a fire, talking, listening, being a friend to a handful of misfit fishermen, tax collectors and political extremists...

I had a flash of a vision of Him appearing in that dimly lighted field walking toward me, smiling, sitting next to me in the chair and chatting with me. Suddenly I didn't feel alone. I knew He WAS here. Ready to talk. Ready to listen. Ready to show me and teach me and help me. He's here right now as I type this. He wanted me to share this for people tonight online who are lonely and are yearning for someone, anyone...

The reality is, you are longing for Jesus Christ. If you can recognize this, and realize that it is He that satisifies that hunger for companionship and longing. If you can believe in His love for you and His desire to have a personal relationship with you, you can become acutely aware that He is coming to you and is near you even now. He may come like He did in those Bible stories; I believe those things can and still happen. But more times than not He comes to us invisibly, but very much definitively...

Its up to you and me to believe He is ever present. It is up to us to trust that if we call out to Him, He answers and responds.

So, this is for somebody out there right now. Christ wants you to do what I'm getting ready to do: have a little talk with Jesus, tell Him what's on my mind. Try it. You'll find He's right there, and you'll know it. And that loneliness will depart. I promise.

Good night my friends. Time to have a chat.