Rejection.

Loneliness.

Forgotten.

Despised.

Sadness.

Anger.

Feelings often can lead us away from the Lord, but as I was expressing my feelings to my roommate yesterday, we both realized that we need to find our security and comfort from the Lord.

As she said that, the song “In Christ Alone” popped into my head and all of the sudden my attitude had changed.

The perfect, holy, and good God, sent His own Son to this earth to love people perfectly, without failing, to be despised and rejected, to be hung on a cross for the sins I commit daily, to ultimately suffer the most extreme suffering, to take on my sins and those of this world, to be looked away from by his father for that time.

It really put my life into perspective. Moving to Huntington Beach has been so great, but definitely hard at times. It’s far away from a community that I was once so so so close to. It is filled with relationships that are constantly forming. There is not a comfortable closeness to people quite yet – filled with awkward moments. My parents and siblings are an hour drive. I’m still not settled into my job completely – there are still so many things I do not know.

All of that uncomfortableness and yet none of it compares to the unfamiliarity and lack of comfort that Jesus felt as he hung on that cross. He perfectly and unfailingly loved the people he came in contact with filled with humility and compassion, yet people despised him and rejected him. The God of the universe loved so deeply, yet we turned our backs on him.

When you think of your life in that sense, all of it seems so silly. Why am I getting upset and sad? There is no comparison.

Yet, I have a God who understands my struggles. He understands how I am feeling. Because he was despised and rejected, I can now look to him for my ultimate comfort.

While I was listening to “In Christ Alone” a solitary tear fell from my eyes off my cheek and onto the pillow. I constantly try to make it happen on my own. I try to take control and find my security in my own efforts to do things. I find security in being popular and having comfortable friends. Yes, those things are great, but they should not be my ultimate fulfillment and what I look to find security. My security should be in Christ and his death on the cross for our sins that are so great!

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand 

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save 

‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live 

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again 

And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ 

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny 

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand