Making The Most Of Loneliness

Making the Most of Loneliness

Glynnis Whitwer

My little son sat looking out the front window. His head resting on crossed arms, he watched two neighbor boys race past on bikes.

I watched Joshua from the kitchen door, drying my hands with a dish towel. My shoulders drooped as he let out a despairing sigh. Mirroring his sadness, hot tears burned my eyes. Setting the towel on the counter, I quietly sat down next to him. Without saying a word, I scooped him into my lap and enveloped his little frame with my arms.

His face nuzzled mine and our tears mixed together. I could almost feel the wishing and hoping pulse through his small body: Will they stop by my house? Will they invite me to play? A smothered sob escaped from my little boy, who was trying valiantly to be “big.”

Ever since our move earlier in the year, Joshua had had trouble making friends. The local playgroups were already established, and my shy son was painfully left on the outside. His little brothers were good companions at home, but that didn’t replace friendships at school or in the neighborhood.

The loneliness was oppressive, and I felt it too. In fact, that period of my life was one of my darkest times. We had all left lifelong friends when we moved. Those friendships had been born of common experiences and years spent together. They were effortless.

Now we faced unknown territory, not just geographically, but culturally and socially. This was a new world to us, and Josh felt it as painfully as I did. And yet, during that time, God used loneliness to teach us things we couldn’t learn when our lives were filled with friends.

I learned there are times when God uses loneliness as an invitation. He invites us to turn to Him for advice, to seek His comfort, and to pursue Him as our closest friend. In our pain, God reveals His presence in new ways.

God longs to fill our lonely hearts with Himself. Yet, we often try to fill the desires of our hearts with the things of this world. However, those attempts to find replacements for God are fleeting and insubstantial, leaving us even lonelier than before.

As you face a time of loneliness, take this opportunity to look to Jesus as a best friend. Jesus said: “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

Even though we were designed for community, God has a purpose for loneliness. If we can learn from it, rather than run from it or resent it, we’ll find a lifelong Friend who’ll never leave us lonely.

Dear Lord, thank You for being a friend who will never leave me.

Sometimes the loneliness is overwhelming. Please be real to me today.

I want to learn from this time of loneliness rather than run from it or resent it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

REMEMBER

Sometimes God uses loneliness as an invitation to pursue Him as our closest friend.

REFLECT

In what ways would you say Jesus has revealed Himself to you as a friend?

RESPOND

Take a moment to consider what it means to be a good friend. Write down three or four things that come to mind. Using these characteristics as a reference, identify one way you might be a better friend to God today.

POWER VERSES

James 2:23; Joshua 1:5