The antidote to a lonely life

One of my favorite bloggers is Jennifer Dukes-Lee, who blogs over at Getting Down Jesus. Her writing is full of keen observations into the world around her and the work of God within her. She and I decided to swap blog posts this morning on the subject of “loneliness.”  Find her blog here, but first, read her lovely words below.

The antidote to a lonely life
by Jennifer Dukes-Lee
“The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” — Mother Teresa

We had built the house, stacked dishes in new cupboards, found places for our books and our toys and our chairs and all our things.

And yes, it was all beautiful and shiny, and it smelled like fresh paint and lumber and new carpet.

And I was miserable.

I remember sitting on the floor of my daughter’s bedroom that first week in our new home on an Iowa farm. I was reading the lilting words of “Goodnight Moon” to our daughter, who was almost one year old. Her pudgy finger found the mouse, and the stars, and the moon, and the bunny … and the one tear trailing down this mama’s cheek.

I was lonely.

We were living in the community where my husband grew up. We knew people. They waved and small-talked and smiled and shook our hands. And everyone was friendly and welcoming. But they all seemed to have settled comfortably into established friendships — long-standing since childhood, and often linked by blood. And I couldn’t find my way past the small-talk.

It was after the birth of our second child a couple years later when the neighbors asked: Would you like to come over for supper? And that started an abiding friendship that has endured to this day.

I know that Jesus is the antidote to loneliness. I know that God wants us to seek communion with Him first. I understand that He can fill any emptiness. But I also know that He created us with hearts that yearn for community. We come out of the womb aching to be held and loved. We want to matter to someone.

We long to belong.

Today, living on the other side of loneliness, I ask God to keep my eyes open for the lonely people whose hearts yearn for true friendship. I need not look far. For they are in the grocery aisles, the post office, the church pews … and just up the road.

Let us pray …Lord, Let me not forget the pain of loneliness, for it helps me to see more clearly. Give me Your eyes so I can see the lonely hearts. In the name of Jesus, who never leaves us alone, Amen.

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