The desolation of loneliness

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ ". - Hebrews 13:5

"It is the most desolate word in all human language," says Chuck Swindoll. "It is capable of hurling the heaviest weights the heart can endure. It plays no favorites, ignores all rules of courtesy, knows neither border nor barrier, yields no mercy, refuses all bargains, and holds the clock in utter contempt." That word is loneliness, one of the most terrible maladies to strike our existence. Mother Teresa called loneliness "the hunger for human love" and described it as "the world’s worst ill."

One of the strangest things about the malady is that we can be in the midst of people, yet loneliness strikes. It was an American expatriate living in France who pressed his face to the window pane as he watched people hurrying towards the warmth of their homes and turned away to write the words, "Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home." Ask the man or woman whose hospital room has made existence that of a prisoner, or the elderly woman who lives by herself but goes to the store daily for minimal purchase just to see someone else. Telephone operators report that there are certain individuals who have made it a practice to call at about the same time every day, usually on the pretext of needing a number, when actually they just want to hear the sound of a human voice.

Ask the celebrity who is surrounded with fans seeking authographs, and you may be surprised to learn that some of the world’s most influential and well-known people are also some of the loneliest. Take, for example, actress Doris Day, once voted the world’s most popular actress, who candidly confessed that she was an extremely lonely woman and often cried herself to sleep. Speaking of the emptiness in her life she asked, "If so many people love me, how come I’m alone?"

It is not only the sick, the imprisoned, the elderly or the extremely talented who are lonely. Ask the single parent who puts the kids to bed and dares not to turn off the radio or television. Ask the employee who is burned out and fearful of letting his boss know he needs help. Ask the teenage girl who is pregnant and fearful of telling her parents.

There are two things of which you can be sure: God knows your anguish and hurt, and He cares. He cares more deeply than you can imagine. Do you remember the loneliness that Jesus Christ faced as the disciples turned one by one and left Him? Remember the anguish as He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). Do you recall the long hours prior to the ordeal at Calvary when He struggled in prayer in the Garden and wrestled with the anguish that was before Him?

Do you remember how Jesus prayed, "If it be possible, may this cup be taken from me..." (Matthew 26:29 ). Was He afraid of dying? Fearful of the nail which would be driven through His hands and feet? No, a thousand times no! What He was asking was that He not be separated from the presence of the Father. In other words, He was praying that He might be spared the loneliness of separation from the Father’s presence.

Jesus is a specialist when it comes to loneliness, and that’s part of the reason that He provides a remedy for your hurt. He promised those who follow him, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). It’s the difference between being alone and being lonely. - Resource reading: Hebrews 13

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