Golden HYMNS Of The FAITH : Where No One Stands Alone

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Where No One Stands Alone

The good news is that, as an adult, if you want to change the destination, you can begin by using the navigational system that you have.

- T.D. Jakes.

It was during 1968 that I, on one dark, ominous and miserable night, came face to face with the worst bout of debilitating loneliness of my life. My girlfriend and I had just broken up and my heart was laying in shatters. I was still living with my parents at the time, and, to add my misery, my father appeared not to demonstrate an ounce of sympathy for me, but instead was making all kinds of (what seemed to be) silly remarks to cheer me up.
The final coup de grace was when he, the Managing Director of our small but fairly robust firm, told me to take the minibus that evening after dinner and drive the approximately eighty kilometres to a textiles-wholesaler in the Newlands-suburb of Johannesburg (South Africa) to pick up some merchandise for our shop. The wholesaler had phoned and had asked for us to pick up the stuff as soon as possible ('a.s.a.p.'), as he was being inundated with shipments from factories and needed to clear his shop floor for other contingencies. Many readers will perhaps realise that, to a clinically-depressed person suffering from the mental anguish of a failed relationship, the stress involved with driving an eighty kilometre drive (alone!) almost feels like the equivalent of eight-hundred kilometres.

To add further insult to injury, instead of taking the normal well-known route (in those days) from Carletonville where we lived, via Randfontein and Krugersdorp to Newlands, I made the mistake of taking the obscure, isolated route known as the Ventersdorp-road via Krugersdorp, an extremely quiet and isolated route with a dimly lit road and (admittedly) with the beautiful Southern Hemisphere stars glistening like jewels against the velvet canopy of night. It was a mistake for the simple reason that the road was too quiet for my personal good, which left too much time and opportunity for morbid introspection and philosophising. In a matter of minutes I was transformed from an ordinary, inexperienced suburban retailer and aspiring young adult to a tired, decrepit old sage of a thousand years old (so it felt at the time, anyway). I had never before been both so alone and so lonely in my life … even during my conscription days in the army in 1966 and later on (I was a ‘military policeman’) had I ever experienced such a psychologically taxing moment like this.

Someone has said that, when God closes one door, instead of opening up another one He sometimes breaks your heart, and this was it for me. The bend in the road does not necessarily mean the end of the road, but this was the end of the road for me. It was as if the black vastness of all the physical mass in the entire Universe (and, mind you, it is one 'heck' of a Universe) was bearing down on me and crushing my soul to pieces … can the reader imagine all the physical mass in a 27 billion light-year diameter Universe bearing down on the fragile remains of a broken heart of a human being weighing about 75 kg in body mass and only 178 centimetres tall?

What saved me was that, over and above all the introspection and philosophising, I had had the presence of spirit to start praying and asking God for deliverance, guidance and most of all, the comforting presence and power of the Paracletos, the Holy Spirit. I survived that night to survive many more, and, over time, one of the songs that had contributed immensely over the years to my peace of mind was this one by Mosie Lister, i.e. Where No One Stands Alone:

YouTube

Where No One Stands Alone

(Mosie Lister, b.1921)

Once I stood in the night with my head bowed low,
In the darkness, as black as could be;
And my heart felt alone
And I cried oh Lord,
Don't hide your face from me.

Like a king I may live in a palace so tall,
With great riches to call my own;
But I don't know a thing
In this whole wide world,
That's worse than being alone.

CHORUS: Hold my hand all the way,
Every hour, every day
From here to the great unknown;
Take my hand
Let me stand,
Where no one stands alone.
(Repeat: Take my hand
Let me stand
Where no one stands alone).

Piet Stassen

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