Lonely Street

Song lyrics paint a clear picture of life; we share tales of love and loss, joy and sadness, companionship and loneliness. Loneliness … just the word makes me want to hang my head. I am unable to form the word loneliness with a smile on my face. Poets and songwriters pen their deepest pain. Craving the presence of one they love, writers share the ache of feeling alone.

It is ironic, we hear it is lonely at the top. That implies that many who reach success and are in the midst of their peers feeling lonely and isolated. Notoriety comes at a high cost. They lose the pleasure of relationships based on trust.

Scapegoats take the blame. Society pushes them away, wanting no association with the guilty. It might be time for me to take a second look at their role. “Aaron will make the Most Holy Place, the Meeting Tent and the altar clean. Then he will bring the goat alive to the Lord. He will put both his hands on the head of the living goat. Then he will confess all the sins and crimes of Israel over the goat. In this way Aaron will put the people’s sins on the goat’s head. Then he will send the goat away into the desert. A man who has been appointed will lead the goat away. So the goat will carry all the people’s sins on itself. It will go to a lonely place in the desert. The man who leads the goat will let it lose there (Leviticus 16:20-22 NCV).”

Imagine the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus is led to a hill outside of the city; the sin of the world is placed on Him. In loneliness, He asks why the Father abandoned Him. He dies in our place. The Father who gave Him, offering the way to receive eternal life loses Him from the grave! He tasted loneliness and reaches out to us with His hand; we never walk alone. —PamFord Davis