God didn't intend for people to be lonely or to live alone. He intended for
us to live, love and share our lives TOGETHER with OTHERS in FAMILIES.
"God sets the lonely in families."--Psalm 68:6. So, with the great
fragmentation of family life that has taken place in modern-day culture, it is
hardly surprising that loneliness is a greater problem than it has ever been
since the beginning of history!
Research shows that people who live alone require medical treatment much
more frequently than do married people. Loneliness also can bring on
self-destructive behaviour such as increased smoking and drinking, and can make
people more prone to risk-taking behaviour such as reckless driving. The
suicide rate of people who live alone is FIVE TIMES HIGHER than "the norm".
The lonely need companionship, someone with whom he can share his life, but
in today's World people somehow tell themselves they can make it alone! This independence
talk is a myth, we are told that individuals should look out for THEMSELVES
first and foremost, and, above all else, live for "ME FIRST", not
caring about others.
There was a very lonely woman once who was always seeking a new lover, a new
love, but never finding one that satisfied or lasted or that relieved her
loneliness. But when it was suggested to her that perhaps she needed to learn
how to GIVE love, and to love UNSELFISHLY for the benefit and happiness of
ANOTHER, after years of searching, this struck her as an entirely new idea that
had never occurred to her before! She went out and soon found what she was
looking for all the time--true love!
So there's the key, the simple
solution to loneliness!--The same as it's been since Man was first created: If
you GIVE love, you'll GET love!
Jesus has created a special place in our hearts that only HE can fill. For
although the BODY is of this EARTH and is satisfied with the THINGS of this
Earth, the human SPIRIT, that intangible personality of the real you that
dwells in that body, can never be completely satisfied with anything but utter
union with the great and loving SPIRIT Who created it.
It reminds me of the story of the famous Christian songwriter, George
Matheson. He was deeply in love and soon to be married, when he was told by his
doctor that he was losing his sight and would be a blind man within six months!
He was heartbroken of course, but he didn't think it fair to his sweetheart not
to tell her and give her the choice whether she still wished to go ahead with
the marriage or not. He felt that if she really loved him she would still want
to live with him and take care of him.
So he went to her house that night and they sat on the couch holding hands
and chatting about this and that, until finally he plucked up the courage to
tell her, "Honey, I have some very, very sad news. The doctor tells me
that by our wedding date I will be completely blind!" All of a sudden he
felt her hand quiver and loosen its grasp. Then icily, coldly, it was withdrawn
from his as she turned away and burst into tears and said, "Oh, I'm so
sorry, George... but I COULDN'T be married to a BLIND man!"
Crushed, and heartsick, his whole world falling apart, he walked
despondently back to his home where he sat down alone at his desk and thought
about how the only thing that he had left in the whole World now was JESUS.
Then he took a piece of paper and his old quill pen and he wrote the famous
hymn that has since been a comfort to millions, "Oh Love that will not let
me go"--JESUS!
"Oh Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee,
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be!"
