God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. (Psalm 68:6)
Let me state the obvious: There are too many lonely people in the world.
Now you can rightly ask, how is that so obvious to me? Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s so obvious to me just in seeing people carry on their daily lives and interactions. It’s obvious to me in the number and nature of good, close relationships that I can name.
Beyond that, there can be no doubt, that for all the social networking media, for all the efforts made to bring people together, for all this there are people who still feel incredibly lonely. Worse still, some of them from certain backgrounds have seen independence as such a virtue they simply refuse to trust anyone with any aspect of their lives. As they do so out of self-preservation, the very life they seek to preserve shrivels in tragic solitude. Solitude they didn’t need bringing in a loneliness that cripples the very function they’ve been created with to relate and engage with others.
Yes you’ve been hurt, yes someone has made you have a distrust of people, but as long as those barriers are raised, as long as those suspicions remain, there will never be the chance to enjoy life with all of its diversity and grow by the benefit of learning from others. God did not create us to be lonely. He created us to relate and love each other at the deepest core of who we are. We live in a fallen world, sure it’s not about trusting everyone and throwing ourselves on people, it is about growing in knowing that the Risen Saviour sits on the right hand of God not just making a way for individual relationships, but forging a heart capable of loving others.
That’s why I like the verse that for the lonely, God gives a family. Now we can experience that the family can go beyond the blood relatives and touch on the spiritual relatives. Relatives who know we are meant to be together, because that is the only way community grows.
As that familial love nips loneliness in the bud, so it should be a beacon to others who live the lonely lifestyle. It’s time for them to know that there is a God whose design is for them to find relationships in His Family. It’s time to be that family around others. Expressing that in genuine efforts to show them the love of God as the grounds for developing relationships.
There are too many lonely people in the world, but the son of God showed us the way, and centred our hearts on the gospel. That’s because the good news is always about the King who looks to make relationships right with our God, right with our environment and right with all the key relationships in which we engage.
That’s what we see when we see this glorious Kingdom on earth where peacemakers ushers us to come to the one who gives them true rest. They need never be lonely again. They are a part of God’s family..
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 