Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday December 5, 2011

Coping with actual loneliness or the perception of being alone is a battle we all face to differing degrees and varied stages in life. I talked with a widow this week that is battling loneliness. She asked about Internet match ups and though I know of a few rather successful ones, playing Power Ball has a higher chance of winning.

We get so used to what the old timers called "the madding crowd" that when a season of quietness overtakes us, we feel out of place, lost with no sense of meaning. It seldom occurs to anyone that the hustle and bustle of life may be a planned diversion to draw us away from the plan of God for us clearly expressed in several places in both Old and New Testaments:

Isaiah 32:18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;

1 Timothy 2:2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

The ideal life as taught in the scripture is not the party lifestyle with Christians merely substituting nice things for the carnal, but rather the development of the spiritual. In many Teen Programs when the kids are too old to attend the only required change for the adult party scene is the addition of whiskey and meth as everything else is the same.

A longtime friend, a pastor, comments on the sense of loneliness that can invade our peace and his comments are on target. Perhaps it will help you as whether we are pastors or other servants of Christ we face many of the same inner aches and pains.

"Thank you. Maybe one day time will allow me to drop by for a day in Terre Haute. But I haven't a clue whenever that would be. I do stay rather busy. But it has occurred to me this morning from something I read that I need to embrace this loneliness as part of the afflictions of Christ that go with this job. After all, this job of pastoring (shepherding) the flock of God is the nearest to that of the Son of God that there is in this earth. Therefore, the afflictions of Christ will befall us in a way that they do not befall the rank and file of believers. And loneliness was certainly one of the afflictions of our Lord.

Psalms 69:20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

Matthew 26:40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

Psalms 102:7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.

Couple this verse with the following:

2 Corinthians 11:27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."

Thank you for sharing your insightful, biblical thoughts with us today.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with credit.

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