Turn to me and have mercy on me, for I am alone and in deep distress.  Psalm 25:16

     A painfully honest magazine article in Good Housekeeping in March, 2017, written by Ruth Whippman, shared how life can take you into situations that leave you painfully lonely. Whippman moved with her husband from London to California and found herself, for the first time, not having any friends. She reveals that 1 in 5—roughly 60 million people—suffer from loneliness. One in four Americans live alone, and while technology is supposed to connect us, it can actually play a role in making us lonely, substituting online interactions for real-world ones.

     In her pursuit of friendship she learned to be courageous by seeking people out, hoping they would reciprocate. She says it was an exhausting and sometimes dispiriting process, but as she persevered, her circle started to increase. She joined a writers club, did play dates for her toddler, and made friends at her son’s preschool. “The effort felt monumental at times, but it was an effort that could not have been better spent.”

     I talk to lonely people (and we can be surrounded by people and still be lonely), and often, they sit around feeling sad and alone, hoping for friends to encourage and support them, but they won’t do anything about it. It’s easy to get into a funk and not make an effort to get out of it.

     All of us have been lonely. And there are days when, in the middle of a relationship-rich life, that you can still feel very alone. God cares about those times, those days, those seasons. (See the verse. David certainly experienced the pain of being alone.)

     In her book “Alone in Marriage,” Susie Larsen writes, “God aches for us when our journey is a lonely one. He understands how painful it is….But we are the ones who will decide how we will let loneliness affect us. Will we choose intimacy with Christ, or will we fill the void with idols and addictions?”

     If you are feeling lonely, ask God how He wants you to use this time. He may have allowed this season for new things to come into your life. Don’t sit in self-pity and isolate. Use this time to become stronger physically and spiritually. Spend extra time with God. Begin to look around for where He may want you to invest this time or for other people who may be lonely. Look for ways that God is blessing you and be faithful to Him. He’s been faithful to you in the past and He’ll come through for you again. Count your blessings, not your lonely days.

*Choose one new thing you can do to move toward a better mind-set in this lonely season.

Precious Lord, I know You are with me on this journey. I ask for Your mercy right now. Help me to thrive in this desperate place as I choose to trust You and look for Your blessings. May this lonely time turn into a retreat for the purpose of replenishing me and strengthening me for the new season that You will unfold. I will choose hope today. I am Yours, Lord. Amen.


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