The Cure for Loneliness

With the myriad of relationships waiting at your fingertips, why do you sometimes feel so lonely?

In a single day, your life intersects with hundreds of people.  Some you pass by without saying a word to, others you engage with in brief conversations.  There are people you have to talk to, and some you want to talk to.  Your relationships go wide in number but vary deeply in depth.  There are friends and lifelong friends, and a myriad of acquaintances scattered in between.  People are plentiful.  There’s no shortage of them to reach out toward.

We all enter this Earth with an amount of emptiness, measured by a variety of unmet, intrinsic needs.  Just as the need for food and water and warmth drive us outwardly, the need for love, acceptance, and security drive us inwardly.  We want these inward needs met, yet look to other empty people to satisfy them.

But when square pegged people can’t fit into our God shaped, round holes, relationships fail, leaving us feeling lonely.

Hearing God in the garden, Adam and Eve ran and hid.  Sin makes us want to cover-up and retreat.  I’m not saying God was surprised at what happened, but I wonder if the situation brought about His own feelings of loneliness.  After all, the one created in His own image did run way from Him.  In response to Adam’s hiding, that’s probably why God yelled out, “Where are you?”

Inwardly, we are incomplete and in desperate need for God to make us whole.  But seldom is God the first choice we run to when things get broken.  Usually we go looking at other things to fix us.

Loneliness is simply the exhausted feeling you have when running toward these other things and away from God.  Yet loneliness also serves as God’s promise that He’s coming after you, just like He did with Adam and Eve.  He wants a relationship with you.  Your need for God cannot compare to God’s need for you.  Since God is love, He must love.  He needs someone to love.  He needs you.

God overwhelms loneliness by flooding it with love.  He is the round peg that fits snugly into your round hole, making you whole.

But loneliness also serves a very important role in regards to your relational responsibilities.  It’s the little push that forces you out from behind that which you’re hiding and causes you to frantically wave your arms and cry out, “God, I’m over here!”

And in the midst of the cry, God hears your declaration for Him.

He is on the way.

Can you see Him coming?

(Has reading this inspired anything within you?  If yes, share your thoughts with me below, and then share this article with your friends).

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