I used to look forward to weekends. Weekends meant family time, getting stuff done around our little farm, playing with the kids, and maybe catching up on rest.

I've found these days I tend to dread Friday nights, because the pain of separation from my family is simply more acute on weekends. For example, at almost exactly 5 p.m. this past Friday, I started to feel a deep sense of loneliness. (Even writing about it right now makes me somewhat sad.)

In those moments, I often think of Psalm 31:

I am a reproach among all my enemies,
But especially among my neighbors,
And am repulsive to my acquaintances;
Those who see me outside flee from me.
I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel. . . .

Yep, that's sometimes the way I feel, especially in those moments. I know the end, though. I know God's love trumps everything (Romans 8:39). Our Lord JESUS knew the end as well, but it didn't stop Him from sweating drops of blood in Gethsemane.

The fourth century church father, Gregory of Nazianzus, said of Christ's humanity, "Whatever has not been assumed has not been healed." In other words, Christ must have assumed a full humanity (sans sin, of course) in order to fully heal humanity and to fully identify with humanity. JESUS' full humanity gives me great comfort in times like this. Just knowing that He was tempted, abandoned, lonely -- that all comforts me.

His sufferings are like mine.