Comfort foods for the soul (9): You are never ignored

I’ve heard that being in a crowd can also be quite lonely.

It’s indeed paradoxical.

When I was young, I often represented my father to attend monthly banquets in his association.
I felt lonely amongst the diners, all my father’s peers.

Then when I worked in Government I had occasions to attend some cocktail functions.
That same feeling of being lonely was there.

Perhaps many of you reading have similar experiences.

Unpleasant though those occasions might be, they were bearable.
Still there were the occasional meaningless conversations with people of little consequence to me.
At worst, I could mitigate it by switching my focus to food and drinks.

But when being alone feels and tastes like no one cares about you, then that gets scary.

Worse if you are already down in a rut for a long period!

It’s as if whether you exist or not matters not a single bit.

Just imagine you were a fugitive.
Either from government or God.
For something.
For about four decades.
Been doing menial jobs, nothing of consequence.

You were still living, not homeless or anything like that, going about business adequately.

But the you inside felt dead, actually for quite a while.
Because for just as long, no one cared about your existence.

You felt lucky to have evaded being caught.
But deep down you felt it might be better if you had been caught.
At least someone cared to, if you were still alive.

But when you had alone for four decades, doing pretty much the same thing everyday, your faint hope of someone noticing or caring about you had really been snuffed out.

You were living a life of a dead hope.
Lonely.
No one cared.

But was your hope really dried up?

One day you saw a fire.
A burning fire.
Kept burning.
But never consumed the bush under the fire.

And a voice called you out:
“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:10, New International Version)

After four decades, someone actually was aware of you.
And that someone picked you.
To do something great and useful for him.

And you thought no one cared all along?
Plus you were lonely.
As lonely as dead?

How wrong you were!
How wasteful those years all feeling lonely!

It was all about timing. 
Not yours. 
Someone else’s timing. 

Within that clock, you were never unnoticed.
Never forgotten.
Actually never lonely.