Loneliness

We all, I believe, have our struggles with loneliness. And if we "quizzed" each other, we would probably come up with a host of different definitions for loneliness as well. Some of us are lonely in the midst of crowds of people because of a sense that we don't fit in. Some of us are lonely because we have lost someone or several someones that we deeply loved and there are holes in our life that no one else can fill humanly speaking. Some of us are lonely because we feel misunderstood or we fear what others would think if they did understand us. Some of us are lonely at times because we have been rejected, betrayed, unloved by those who should love us. Some of us are lonely at times because of the stigma the world places on our singleness. (The church, I believe, is often brutal in the assigning of that ungodly perception.) Some of us have experienced such a deep sense of loneliness in one of those situations I mentioned above that we prefer a "safe" loneliness to the risk of re-experiencing something even remotely similar. Loss, misunderstanding, rejection, betrayal--loneliness. Yet, are there any lonelier words than, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me"? Whatever your loneliness, He does understand. And because of that, there is one truth that you and I must grasp in our struggles with loneliness. No matter how lonely you feel, you are never alone. Never. And the One who is with you knows absolutely everything about you, and loves you as fully and ardently as anyone has ever been or will ever be loved. There is nothing you can do, no place you can hide, to escape His loving presence. Forsaken, you can never be.
And I have found that there is a paradoxical aide to battles with loneliness--getting alone with Him. "Aloneness" and loneliness can be antonyms. It is when I am alone with Him--in the Word, in prayer, in meditation, in remembrance, that I become more fully aware of His ever present love--of the heart filling truth that the Lord is near; the Lord is at hand; that I am eternally enclosed in the hands of the Father and the Son. I am in the inescapable grasp of eternal, infinite love.
I do not think we will ever escape the struggle at times with loneliness until we stand eternally in the presence of the One who alone can satisfy our every heartfelt need--the only One who can fill up all the emptiness. But that feeling of loneliness can be such a positive in our lives if we seek the time to practice His presence in the act of personal, intimate worship--alone with the Lover of our souls.
And there is one more thing we must do. In His name, never reject, never stop listening, never stigmatize, never betray, never become calloused to the loss others are feeling, never be unloving, never fail to forgive and seek restoration, never let the fear of rejection keep us from reaching out to others--no matter how many times they actually do reject us, never be anyone but Him to all those He has placed in our lives--all those struggling with the loneliness that we ourselves struggle with. Never.
One day He will banish loneliness forever. One day He will restore to us--and us to them--those we love that are in Him that we have lost. Until then--and there are few phrases more important than "until then"--seek time to be alone with Him, seek to be His visible presence in the lives of others (glorify Him), and remember: "You are never alone. That's impossible for one of His dearly beloved--for you.
Yes, impossible.