You Are Not Alone!

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

Text: Genesis 2:18 thru 23; John 15:12 & 13

Recently a columnist by the name of Marla Paul wrote something profound for the Chicago Tribune. Marla Paul confessed to her readers something very transparent. She said, “I am lonely”.

Marla Paul went on to say in her article,

“This loneliness saddens me. How did it happen I could be forty two years old and not have enough friends?”

She asked her husband if there was something wrong with her social life.

She wondered if people were too busy to have friends. Marla began to realize there were many women who don’t know they are lonely and were just filling up their day with work.

In her article, Marla added that she had recently read to her daughter the story (from Hans Christian Anderson the)

“The Ugly Duckling”.

She said the story expressed it well for her.

“…(There’s) this bird who flies from place to place looking for creatures with whom he belongs. (The bird) eventually finds them.” Sadly, Marla Paul ended her article with this: “I hope I do too.”

Marla Paul’s news column (with the Chicago Tribune) immediately grew in popularity by seven times. People were approaching her everywhere saying,

“You too? I thought I was the only one.”

Many of her readers wrote in admitting the same feelings. “Why do I feel so lonely? Why is it hard to make friends?”

You may be thinking this is not surprising.

But this is not just a problem for women.

A recent survey of men in our country showed that 90% of them lacked a true friend they could confide in and trust.

So what does all of this mean?

None of us wants to admit we are lonely.

In our day and time, if you are lonely you are considered to be a loser. A misfit.

Other surveys have proven that people will admit to being lonely if they don’t have to give their name. But in polls that include the person’s name, everything is seems to be normal.

Mother Teresa said, “Loneliness is the leprosy of modern society. And no one wants anybody to know they’re a leper.”

Albert Schwietzer said,

“We are all so much together, but we all are dying of loneliness.”

But certainly God said it best of all.

He created all of heaven and earth, the beast of the fields, the birds of the air, and said it was all good. Everything was good. That is, until He made man.

And then it happened. The first problem, the first of God’s concerns for mankind occurred. God looked at all that He had created and then looked at man.

He said, “It is not good…that man should be alone…”

People nowadays are much too involved in achieving for themselves and their families. Most of us are guilty of being an over-achiever. We are obsessed with and enslaved to achieving. But we are bankrupt with how we connect with one another. Gone are the porches in the front of our homes where we once made it a point to invite our neighbors over for a cup of coffee or a glass of lemonade.

Men - We achieve but we do not connect. But God said, “It is not good that man should be alone…”

Achieving is not a bad thing, but it is when it becomes our purpose for life. Then, achieving becomes our idol.

Jesus has given to us His commandment. And He said it three times in the book of John. Jesus said we are to “love one another as He has loved us.”

No matter how much money we make, no matter how important we think we have become, in the end it will only matter whether or not we have lived our lives loving one another. If we have not we will find our lives filled with loneliness.

Loneliness is not the plan of God for our lives. According to God’s plan, we are not to be alone.

The mistake church has often made is in how we have counseled one another when it comes to having relationships. We often tell our brothers and sisters that we have this void in our hearts called emptiness. We mean well when we tell them “only God can fill that void”.

But (to a certain extent) we have exaggerated this and made it our doctrine.

Listen. People need God. But God said that people need one another, as well.

Men, God did not intend for us to have a helpmate solely for the purpose of washing the dishes and ironing our shirts.

Women, God did not create man solely for the purpose of bringing home the bacon. Likewise, God did create any of us to stay home and isolate ourselves from our neighbors and coworkers who are lost and lonely living without Jesus.