Matthew 26:36-46

Matthew 26:36-46 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Sorrow is lonely.
  Here is Jesus on the night before he is going to take the sins of the world upon his shoulders and be crucified upon a cross.  All he asks is that his disciples, with whom he has spent the previous 3 years, stay awake and pray with him.  And these, his best friends, what do they do? 
  They fall asleep.  Multiple times.
 
  I've been there.  You've likely been there -- in the depths of sorrow, it always feels lonely.  You think that you're the only one going through this, and even when you have close friends, they often don't know what to say or do, and sometimes even those with the best of intentions still may let you down. 
  Sorrow is lonely.

  The suicide rates are terrifying, further proof of how lonely sorrow is.  If I could say one thing to people, it's that God walks with you through the valley of the shadow of death.  When Jesus was alone and the disciples were asleep, he prayed his heart out to God, and God was with him, there in the shadow of his impending death, as the walls  closed in around him, as he was afraid and felt alone.  God was with him there in the Garden, and the disciples, with their good intentions, were not far from him, even if they were wonderfully imperfect.
 
  So if you are in the midst of sorrow, know that God is with you, and will listen to you as you pour your heart out.  You are not alone, no matter how lonely sorrow may feel.  There is a dawn on the other side of the dark night.  And there are friends -- they may be sleeping, not realizing the true depths of your sorrow, and you may have to wake them several times, but they are not giving up on you. 
  There is hope, because God is there, in the midst of the sorrow.  And where God is (and God is everywhere), there is light, even in the darkest of nights.