[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Flonely-now-and-then":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Flonely-now-and-then-surround":73},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":16,"columnName":56,"date":57,"description":22,"extension":58,"image":59,"meta":60,"minRead":61,"navigation":62,"path":63,"postType":64,"publication":65,"publicationUrl":59,"seo":66,"stem":67,"topics":68,"__hash__":72},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Flonely-now-and-then.md","Lonely Now and Then",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10,11,12,13,14,15],"Isaiah","Acts","1 Kings","2 Corinthians","Luke","Hebrews","Revelation",{"type":17,"value":18,"toc":52},"minimark",[19,23,26,29,32,40,43,46,49],[20,21,22],"p",{},"Humorist Erma Bombeck once described what loneliness feels like: \"It's sleeping in the middle of the bed. It's eating an omelet all by yourself and the more of it you eat, the bigger it gets. It's not talking all day and saying something dumb just to see if your voice still works. It's frozen bread, a washer set at mini-load, and clocks that may just as well be calendars.\"",[20,24,25],{},"Let me add some more examples. Loneliness is the queasy feeling in a student's stomach on his first day in a new school. It's a homesick college student staring at her dorm room ceiling, a weary soldier adjusting to boot camp, and a missionary six months into his first term 10,000 miles from home.",[20,27,28],{},"It's a single parent trying hard to be both mom and dad to a growing child. It's a teenager who acts like the life of the party with her friends, then goes home and fills her diary with lines of self-loathing. It's the person who moves from one sexual partner to the next but can't shake the vague awareness that his life has become shallow and self-serving. It's the faithful man or woman who has remained a virgin and prayed for a spouse, only to wonder why God hasn't provided one. It's the gritty person toughing out a marriage to a mate who rarely talks or listens.",[20,30,31],{},"Loneliness is the person with a learning disability or a physical weakness who finds it hard to compete in a world that judges others by appearance or performance rather than by character. It's the non-Christian who finally summons the courage to visit a church service, only to feel unwelcome there. It's the senior citizen whose friendly smile hides private pain. It's the preacher who talks with others all week and stands confidently before hundreds on Sunday morning, but privately longs for someone who will listen to him and pray for his family. And it's the minister's wife whose efforts behind the scenes often go unnoticed.",[20,33,34,35,39],{},"But there's more to the story. Loneliness can be deceiving. Scripture says that the government will be on ",[36,37,38],"span",{},"Christ's"," shoulders\" (Isaiah 9:6); why do we act like it's all on our own? Elijah complained about the moral breakdown of his society and told God, \"I am the only one left.\" But the Lord still had 7,000 people whose knees hadn't bowed to Baal (1 Kings 19:10-18). The apostle Paul went to the pagan city of Corinth \"in weakness and fear, and with much trembling\" (1 Corinthians 2:3). But the Lord assured him, \"I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city\" (Acts 18:10).",[20,41,42],{},"Loneliness can lead to growth. Moses spent 40 years tending sheep in Midian. But there in the lonely wilderness the Lord shaped his character through the discipline of solitude, and there Moses encountered the burning bush. Even Jesus \"often withdrew to lonely places and prayed\" (Luke 5:16).",[20,44,45],{},"Loneliness can drive us deeper inside our self-protective shells, or it can motivate us to pursue deeper love for God and others.",[20,47,48],{},"Most important, for the Christian, loneliness will be eliminated. God says, \"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you\" (Hebrews 13:5). In Heaven \"the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God\" (Revelation 21:3).",[20,50,51],{},"God's unfailing presence can change your outlook even if you're lonely now and then. He's with us now. He will be with us then.",{"title":53,"searchDepth":54,"depth":54,"links":55},"",2,[],"From the Editor's Desk","1998-09-13","md",null,{},3,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Flonely-now-and-then","column","The Lookout",{"title":5,"description":22},"articles\u002Flonely-now-and-then",[69,70,71],"Biblical Theology","Spiritual Formation","Church Leadership","ECWMcWWO5v5LSiA5AQcTcyZzuQxqzYXazOGGs4h3LiA",[74,79],{"title":75,"path":76,"stem":77,"description":78,"children":-1},"Like Watchmen Waiting","\u002Farticles\u002Flike-watchmen-waiting","articles\u002Flike-watchmen-waiting","I hate to wait.",{"title":80,"path":81,"stem":82,"description":83,"children":-1},"Lord, Teach Us to Pray","\u002Farticles\u002Flord-teach-us-to-pray","articles\u002Flord-teach-us-to-pray","Suppose you lived in the first century, and you were one of Jesus' original disciples. What would you have wanted him to teach you? If you saw him turn water into wine, would you have been curious about how he did it? Might you have asked him how to give sight to the blind, or how to speak in parables?"]