How many songs about loneliness can you name right now? If I’m honest I probably have a slew of them throughout my Spotify playlists as we speak. The angsty wonder of ending up alone, is it freedom or a nightmare? I think we all desire community, crave it, we were designed for it. We bond over shared experiences, even the shared experience of not having someone beside us.
Have you ever thought about why loneliness has become so “trendy”. As I drove down the street to pick up my dinner for one, this is the topic that plagued my mind.
Loneliness doesn’t require accountability.
Very few of us would admit clinging to loneliness as an escape from being challenged but I’m wondering if it’s not a far off thought. Community and challenge might as well be the same word. Even though it’s what you were made for, you still get a few bruises along the way. People aren’t perfect, so we can’t support each other perfectly. Instead of accepting that fact in grace and pushing forward, hand in hand, we recite verses of me, myself and I. We’ve moved from being victims of loneliness to pursuers of loneness. “You are all you need” “Be the main character” “Don’t give time to those who don’t serve you”.
Loneliness can feel like something not easily changed. You can’t just go to the store and buy a husband or best friend. So instead of taking this feeling to God, we give it power. We try to flip the script in hopes that we won’t feel it anymore, but it just cuts deeper.
Loneliness comes from the gaps.
I used to beat myself up for not obtaining 100% fulfillment, until my perspective shifted to realize, I’m not going to see Eden on this side of Heaven. Even my best day will still have gaps. These gaps are meant to draw me closer to the Father, to inspire me to stick with community and invite those who have nowhere to go- in.
We weren’t meant to be our own everything, we can’t, it doesn’t match the design. God himself exists in community.
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Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and all the small animals that scurry along the ground”. Genesis 1:26 (NLT)
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, an all the more as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV)
Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2 (CSB)
Making Honey With Thyme 