Saturday Afternoon Session
No One Sits Alone
Excerpts
In the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus invites us to come to each other and to Him in His inn—His Church. …
The spirit of “room in the inn” includes “no one sits alone.” When you come to church, if you see someone alone, will you please say hello and sit with him or her? …
“No one sits alone” also means no one sits alone emotionally or spiritually. I once went with a brokenhearted father to visit his son. Years earlier, the son was excited to become a new deacon. For the occasion, his family bought him his first pair of new shoes.
But at church, the deacons laughed at him and his shoes. His shoes were new, but not fashionable. Embarrassed and hurt, the young deacon said he would never go again to church. My heart is still broken for him and his family. …
In His restored Church, we are all better when no one sits alone. Let us not simply accommodate or tolerate. Let us genuinely welcome, acknowledge, minister to, love. …
Today, many feel lonely and isolated. …
There are many reasons we may feel we do not fit in at church—that, speaking figuratively, we sit alone. …
Mosiah 18:21 invites us to knit our hearts together in love. I invite us to worry less, judge less, be less demanding of others—and, when needed, be less hard on ourselves. …
Covenant belonging deepens as we come to each other and to the Lord in His inn. The Lord blesses us all when no one sits alone.