{"id":109,"date":"2010-08-04T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.pender.org.uk\/?p=109"},"modified":"2011-11-06T16:49:30","modified_gmt":"2011-11-06T15:49:30","slug":"i-want-to-be-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2010\/08\/i-want-to-be-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"I want to be alone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt 14:13-14
As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns. 14 Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
(Holy Bible, New Living Translation .)<\/span><\/p>\n

Greta Garbo once said in an interview, “I have always been moody. When I was just a little child, as early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I detest crowds, don’t like many people. I used to crawl into a corner and sit and think, think things over.”<\/p>\n

When he walked this earth, Jesus was a person just like you and I (see Hebrews 2:17). He felt grief, just like we do.\u00a0 Jesus had just been told of the execution of John the Baptist. He wanted to be alone, just like we do.<\/p>\n

But Jesus wasn’t a Garbo. He didn’t detest crowds, even when he wanted to be alone. He had compassion for them. He put down his own grief and tended theirs.<\/p>\n

He wasn’t a Robert either. How often have I been so tied up in my own affairs, whether it be grief or happiness, and ignored the crowds? Maybe I didn’t go to a remote place to do it either – it is so easy to ignore a crowd when I am standing right in the middle of one!<\/p>\n

Later in her life, Garbo made a statement, “I never said, ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, ‘I want to be let<\/em> alone.’ There is all the difference.”<\/p>\n

I don’t want to be alone. I want to help others. But that’s easy to say.<\/p>\n

Saying is not the same as doing. There is all the difference.<\/p>\n

Jesus had compassion on the crowd AND <\/em><\/strong>healed their sick. Later the same day, he fed thousands of them.<\/p>\n

It’s the AND that makes the difference. It’s the AND that will get me doing something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[11,19,41,44,48,50,68],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","tag-alone","tag-compassion","tag-healing","tag-hebrews","tag-jesus","tag-john-the-baptist","tag-sick","category-5","description-off"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfWaLo-1L","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3919,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2018\/05\/praying-at-the-right-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":0},"title":"Praying at the right time","author":"Robert Pender","date":"08\/05\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I once went for an interview in London and I was having a lot of trouble finding a parking space. I finally found one in a multi-storey car park and then ran to the place where the interview was being held. I arrived just in time, but after the interview\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/christian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7131,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2022\/10\/7-the-big-sea\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":1},"title":"7 – The Big Sea","author":"Robert Pender","date":"27\/10\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=\"7132\" img_size=\"full\" alignment=\"center\" style=\"vc_box_shadow_3d\"][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]For most of the first 20 years of my life I lived next to the Clyde, a beautiful river with stunning scenery around it. Where I was, the river was very wide and was for most of the time calm. Occasionally the wind would get up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2110,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2011\/01\/right-mountain-out-of-the-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":2},"title":"Right, Mountain, out of the way!","author":"Robert Pender","date":"27\/01\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend of mine will shortly set out on an amazing adventure - to climb Mount Kilimanjaro - to help raise funds for the charity Scottish Spina Bifida. I really admire him for that. It will take courage, strength and endurance. You can sponsor him if you would like to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/christian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3915,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2018\/02\/compared-to-others-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":3},"title":"Compared to Others (2)","author":"Robert Pender","date":"22\/02\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hands up anyone who is imperfect \u2026\u2026. Of course, anyone who didn\u2019t put a hand up is full of pride and has therefore fallen from a state of perfection, so you can put your hand up too! Now that we all have our hands up, I thought we would just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/christian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4337,"url":"https:\/\/pender.org.uk\/index.php\/2019\/04\/all-in-the-head\/","url_meta":{"origin":109,"position":4},"title":"All in the Head","author":"Robert Pender","date":"25\/04\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column width=\"1\/2\"][vc_single_image image=\"4338\" img_size=\"full\"][\/vc_column][vc_column width=\"1\/2\"][vc_column_text]Anyone who knows me knows that I've got a head. I think it's to do with the lack of hair. My head is very visible because of that. There is no hair to hide it. 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