Loneliness.

Many people find themselves shut inside this time of year.  A combination of cold air and bad weather can deal a major blow to “community.”  When I was a child… Church was never cancelled due to snow.  For that matter, neither was school but those were somewhat less litigious times and I have no wonder that schools close on the mere threat of snow these days.

I digress.

Churches didn’t cancel because most people walked to church!  The local body of believers was once just that, a local body of believers.  These were people who worked together, bowled together, ate together and saw each other at the local Acme Market.  There was built-in accountability in those days!  If I did something ornery in town my mother knew about it before I got home.

Times have changed and we no longer find that same “community” we once had.  So when a church decides to close on Sunday for the health and safety of it’s members, a lot of people miss a week of human interaction.  Older folks are most susceptible to this situation but they aren’t part of some exclusive club for lonely people.

God made us to be part of a community.  We are often referred to as “members” not in the sense of joining a club, but individual parts which make up a whole.  Individually we may be a foot or hand or eyes but we are designed to be part of the larger body and the longer we isolate ourselves, the less productive we become at our intended work of service.  Isolation is the worst kind of selfishness in that it not only robs others of the blessings we were designed to be it also kills our spirituality and perhaps even our minds.  Living as an island is only possible for a while.  It takes merely one storm to wipe us from existence.

From the book “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller:

“And what is sad, what is very sad, is that we are proud people, and because we have sensitive egos and so many of us live our lives in front of our televisions, not having to deal with real people who might hurt us or offend us, we float along on our couches like astronauts moving aimlessly through the Milky Way, hardly interacting with humans at all.”

“Loneliness is something that happens to us, but I think it is something we can move ourselves out of.  I think a person who is lonely should dig into a community, give himself to a community, humble himself before his friends, initiate community, teach people to care for each other, love each other.  Jesus does not want us floating through space or sitting in front of our televisions.  Jesus wants us interacting, eating together, laughing together, praying together.  Loneliness is something that came with the fall.

If loving other people is a bit of heaven, then certainly isolation is a bit of hell, and to that degree, here on earth, we decide in which state we would like to live.”

So, which do you choose?

Romans 12:3-5 ³ For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himselfmore highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. ⁴ For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.