Overcoming Loneliness
Have you ever felt the weight of being totally alone? Maybe you are single and find yourself wishing for a best friend to watch net flix and eat ice cream with (pick me!) . Maybe you are married but feel like your husband doesn't understand the depths of your emotions . Possibly you are facing the loss of a loved one or a personal dream and feel isolated by grief or depression that no one seems to understand.
Although I will never understand the pain or loneliness you feel, we have a Father that understands every feeling and longing. We don't have to be afraid of being alone forever- physically or emotionally- because He wants to live in us and go with us through each of life's journeys.
Loneliness can be one of the hardest battles I believe of singleness.. and sadly even in marriage. Many friends have told me, it's lonely to be alone, but it's even more lonely to be next to someone and not experience a sense of connection.
Yet Jesus through His time on earth, went to the very core of loneliness and isolation-- and overcame.
Go back into the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus, our Savior, was facing His darkest storm. Satan was throwing at Him the hardest temptations to overcome- guilt, shame, fear, disconnection.He was filling His mind with any lie He could and our Jesus was both lonely and afraid.
With three of his best friends, whom he had invested years, energy, and prayer- He asked a simple request. "Sit here while I pray, and wait for me, pray for me.. for my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death." Falling on His face in despair and pain and loneliness and agony.. he pleaded to God to provide another way less painful. To provide an alternative method of salvation. To provide a comforter or a friend in this dark time.. Yearning for support, for help, for guidance, for love- he looked over to his best friends- only to find them sleeping. In the time he needed them most.. they were sleeping. In the time He needed God's spirit most, God had to watch his son suffer alone. Alone, loneliness. Jesus went there to the depths of this feeling and this place. He went there to show us that we could go there too and that we could overcome it like He did. I think He went there to show us that people on this earth are always going to let us down. There are going to be times where even our closest friends don't seem to understand that pain we are going through or see us. And yet it's comforting to know that we never have to experience the exact loneliness Jesus felt- of having to be pulled away from His loving heavenly Father. I think the more we dwell close to the heart of God- the more we will no longer have to face the enemy's spell of loneliness. I don't believe God created us to have loneliness- He created us to dwell in relationships. And when we are lonely, I believe it demonstrates a lack, that there's something missing in our lives. The heart of God is so relationally based that the trinity is made up of three not one. God has designed our hearts with a longing for belonging, with a desire to fellowship, with a desire to know others and to love them. And I can only imagine what heaven will be when this love is truly fulfilled as we all choose to be one. Until heaven, I believe we can overcome loneliness by drawing nearer to God's character of inclusiveness, love, and harmony while choosing to follow Jesus' footsteps and learn to serve others- everyone around us.
