HOPE IN LONELINESS

Loneliness sometimes can come from putting a hard shell around you. Image credit: *MIN AN* on Pexels.

By REVEREND TONY ZEKVELD

There is a song by Simon and Garfunkel, “I’ve built walls, a fortress, steep and mighty, that none may penetrate, I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain; it’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain. I am a rock. I am an island.”

Loneliness sometimes can come from putting a hard shell around you. Perhaps you feel that way? Isolation can sometimes be self-inflicted as in this song. Or it can be a reaction to pain and rejection by others.

The cause of isolation. God did not make us to live in isolation but to live in relationship with Him and with others. There was the joy of knowing, loving and living.

Isolation began when we broke relation(ship) with God by disobeying Him. We now hide from God. We hide from each other – not wanting to be known and afraid to love and live. You may have your own painful story. So you ask, “How do I break out of my isolation? Where can I find a sense of relationship, belonging?”

The remedy for isolation. We won’t find it in ourselves. We find it in Jesus. God sent Him, His only Son whom He loved, into the world to restore our relationship with God and with others. He did this by paying the full penalty on the cross for our sin and disobedience to God.

In His love for the world, He suffered isolation and rejection by God and the world, that we deserved, to depths unimaginable. In a way, this is something that you and I can never or ever will know or experience! On the cross, He cried out these words, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me” (Matthew 27:46)? To be forsaken is to be abandoned, deserted. Jesus was forsaken so that, all who believe in Him, are forever accepted by God. He restores relationship with us.

In Christ, God reaches out to you! Embracing Christ by faith, God reconnects us to Himself and others.

The joy of belonging. When we belong to Jesus, we also belong to others who belong to Him. The risen, living Lord Jesus forms new communities of belonging – where you need not be afraid to love and be loved.

At Hope Centre, we seek to be that kind of place – a family of Christ where you can share your joys and sorrows with one another, pray for one another, not feel judged, and really live!

May Jesus be your wall and fortress!

HOPE TRIUMPHS

HOPE IN LONELINESS