Left Alone

Dear Boys and Girls,

Tyler shoved his book bag into a corner of the mudroom and scrunched himself into the window seat that looked out over the pasture, trying to make himself as small as possible. He didn’t want anyone to bother him. He’d rather disappear than have his sisters notice that he had been crying, and he didn’t want his brothers to ask him to play. He clenched his jaw and balled his fist inside his pocket. If only he had fought back. If only he had used that fist and socked Michael with it. Instead, he had been afraid when Michael threatened him at school, and he was angry with himself. Michael was just so much bigger and taller. Tyler knew that if his older brother Bryce had known Michael punched his little brother, he would have walloped Michael. Tyler sighed. Why couldn’t he take care of his own problems? He looked at his skinny arm. “I’m puny,” he thought. Then he straightened his shoulders as he rubbed away a last stray tear. “But I’m a whole lot smarter than Michael, anyway.” His mind spun with hateful and revengeful thoughts. “Just wait, Michael,” he muttered. “I’m going to knock your teeth out—tomorrow!”

Just then, Mom came into the mudroom. She picked up a pair of stray boots and set them side by side, then placed a cap on the shelf and looked around searchingly. Her eyes lit up when she saw Tyler in the window seat. “Ah,” she exclaimed, “there you are!” She cupped his chin into her hand and looked into his eyes. “What’s wrong, Tyler?”

Tyler squirmed backward, but he could not move any farther. He looked down. “Just leave me alone,” he muttered. He didn’t want to be pulled out of his angry and revengeful thoughts.

Mom looked surprised. “What did you say?”

Tyler threw up his hands and swung himself out of the seat. “Leave me alone!” he growled as he stomped away.

Perhaps you have said this at some point, boys and girls. “Leave me alone!”

Imagine little Ava, who doesn’t want to get up from her nap. “No, no, let me stay!”

Imagine Eric, whose little brother won’t stop pestering him to play. “Go away!”

Imagine teenager Carla, who snaps at her dad when he asks her with a twinkle in his eye how she’s doing. “Just leave me alone!”

Even grown-ups sometimes say it. Perhaps Tom, a young father, has had a very long and stressful day at work, or Karen, a busy mother, is exhausted. They might say, “Can you just leave me be for a few minutes while I catch my breath? Now is not a good time.”

Here is a question, though, which perhaps none of us have thought about. What if any of these people were really left alone? What if everyone they know and all those they love truly went away? I think we would soon discover they would be even sadder than before. If no one ever asked them anymore how they felt or what was wrong, it would not help their mood. If they never felt little hands tugging at them anymore, or had loving arms hug them, or heard someone begging for their time and company, they would not become happier staying in their own misery.

It would not make us any happier, yet we all continuously beg to be left alone. We are actually asking for a horrible thing. All of us tell the Lord that we want Him to let us be. We do that when we hear His warnings in church that we are sinners, but we don’t let it bother us. We do that when He tells us in His Word that there is a way to be saved, but we turn away because we don’t want our life to be any different from what it is. We do that when we are willing to try to do some things right and serve God a little bit but not with all of our heart. The rest of our heart we want to keep available for our own pleasure. We would rather that the sermons don’t come too close to us and make us too uncomfortable because we want to be happy the way we are. Maybe we have serious thoughts sometimes, but we plan to pray diligently when we are older.

What are we actually asking? Would we actually be happy if God did leave us alone? What if God took His presence and blessing away when we are in church? What if He no longer called to us? What if He no longer took care of each one of us? Not one of us would find happiness or safety that way. What a mercy it is if God has not yet left us alone. It is really a wonder if He still calls out to us in sermons, Bible stories, catechism classes, and more, saying, “You cannot die as you are born.”

If God did leave us alone, we would always leave Him alone—we would never begin to seek Him, love Him, and beg Him to have mercy. Perhaps we would have an easy life; that is possible. Maybe we would have few troubles, but…our life would only meet a terrible, terrible end—an end which is, really, only a beginning. At the end of our life we stand before an eternity which never ends, and we will not be able to say, “Let me alone,” when God asks what we have done with our life.

Pharaoh did so. Nine times, he was warned seriously with plagues. Four times, he tried to make agreements with the Lord. He said to the Israelites, “Go ahead then, leave, but you have to leave your little ones and cattle here…” He wanted to stay in control. He did not want to give up and bow before God. Finally, he said to Moses, “Let me be. Don’t bother me again.” This met with a terrible end, didn’t it? Pharaoh, indeed, did not see Moses anymore, but he perished and had to come before God as an angry Judge.

“Let me be…” “Leave me alone…” In the Bible it is called “hardening your heart.” Even if you feel that your heart is not willing, ask the Lord to make it willing to listen. He has the power to do so.

“Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy power”

(Psalm 110:3)

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