Running From The Loneliness

No abundance of friends, no number of different marriages, no quantity of moves to new cities can ever take the loneliness away.

"Jesus experienced the loneliness of being misunderstood immediately after giving a series of discourses regarding his identity. He had explained that he was the bread of life, the source of living water, and the light of the world. In addition to all this teaching, Jesus had lived among the people, walked their roads, healed their sick, and fed their hungry. But even after all this, the people still asked him, 'Who are you?'" -- M. Craig Barnes (Sacred Thirst)

"Each of us has a deep-seated need to be significant, unique, connected, and enjoying a powerful relationship with God that is relevant to our everyday life. We have an unquenched hunger to understand and to be understood. ... Loneliness disguised as incompatibility and generated from failing to be understood is the enemy of many marriages. The pain of having no one with similar beliefs, convictions, and choices of recreation leaves both spouses feeling isolated." -- John D. Carlson (Passion for His Presence--Entering His Gates)

Mother Terresa said it well: "Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus."

It is our loneliness, our "suffering that so often causes us to see our need. It is our suffering that makes us cry out to God." -- Charles Ringma (Wash the Feet of the World)

"God has not forgotten about our dark nights of restless sorrow. Only when we discover God in the darkest moments of life will we believe that he can and will make the sun finally rise and the new day dawn.

To stand alone in the presence of God is to stand in a place of transformation. There our lonely hearts are reformed and transformed with deep emotions such as joy, love, and compassion for those around us.

It is only in solitude with God that we discover the sufficiency of a God who also yearns for us--so much so that in Jesus Christ he came looking for us.

So instead of running from the loneliness, stay with it. Stare it straight in the eye, and turn it into a prayer of confession. It is the only way to hear the word of the Lord: I HAVE NOT LEFT YOU ALONE." -- M. Craig Barnes (emphasis mine)

Loneliness drives us to aloneness. Aloneness drives us to solitude.

Henri Nouwen reminds us, "Solitude is the way in which we grow into the realization that where we are most alone, we are most loved by God. It is a quality of heart, an inner quality that helps us to accept our aloneness lovingly, as a gift from God."

The Heart can only be satisfied by the One who created it. The yearning is for God.