by David Bisono

MANY TIMES WE surprise people with who we really are and because of it we are left alone in the process. Honesty brings about healing, but it also can bring about separation.
Have you ever found yourself standing all alone when you really thought that those who promised you their friendship and loyalty would not depart from your side? It seems as though they could not stand the heat of what it really meant to be your friend or in a relationship with you and stepped out of the kitchen, not before breaking all the plates and blaming you for the mess.
God uses those low valleys to catapult us into new heights of revelation and relationship with His Glory.
When we dodge the valleys, we never make it to the mountains. Have you ever dodged pain or tried to go around it? It’s natural to avoid pain, but sometimes through it, we realize the true nature and intention of those around us.
As I meditate on this, I can’t help to think about Jesus and how His most intimate and personal companions could not stand the heat and stepped out His life when He most needed them.
They were there when He was healing! They were there when He was multiplying the bread! They were there when He rose the dead!
But where were they when He needed them most? Where were they when He needed healing? Where were they when He needed bread? Where were they when He was being crucified!?
I can identify with Christ! Can you? I pray that this week you take time to meditate and identify with the suffering of Christ. Seek God’s presence and through the suffering, seek to know Jesus better, love Jesus better and serve Jesus better.
We must also learn that many times people may want to be there but cannot. Maybe, like Jesus disciples, they’re also going through their own personal battles. Let’s not be quick to point the finger. Understand that we are not the only ones suffering, even though it may seem like we are.
Embracing others as we suffer is what we are called to do. Isn’t that what Jesus did? Is it easy? Heck no! It means we have to die to ourselves. It means we must crucify ourselves and our fleshly desires on a hourly basis.
Those who have suffered with me and because of me and are still with me make me better, but those that have left make me stronger. Don’t allow anything or anyone to separate you from what God really wants to achieve in your life.
Maybe during Holy Week, you realized, as Jesus has, that those who at one time were excited to be with you, walk with you, even worship with you are no longer there with you. It’s O.K.! God is doing a new thing and this removing of old things is necessary.
I have painfully discovered that “change is scary but necessary.”  Walk in the newness of God and don’t look back. Count on my prayers, support and friendship.

David Bisono is the founder and director of both Jovenes de Valor, a Hispanic youth evangelization movement in Brooklyn and Queens, and Radio Clamor, an Internet-based radio station. He is the Hispanic National Youth Coordinator of the Charismatic Renewal. He also hosts Too Blessed to be Stressed on NET.