Tuesday: Twofold Answer to Loneliness
WEEK 50
TUESDAY
TWOFOLD ANSWER TO LONELINESS
Matthew 28:16-20
The Christian answer to loneliness is twofold. One part of the answer is that Jesus promised he would be with us always to the end of the world. And this becomes a fact; he is with us, not only to the end of the world, but to the ends of the world. I have been in almost every country; and lo, there he was, intimate, personal, and always loving. One is never lonely because never alone. This is real; not merely is it remembering Jesus, it is realizing Jesus. He is closer than any being on earth can possibly be. He is in the deep within. So at any moment I can drop within the silence of my heart and talk with him as friend with Friend. It is a perfect cure for loneliness.
But if your Christian faith is institutionalized—centered in an institution—instead of being internalized—centered in the within—then when you are removed from the institution, you feel cut off, alone, lonely. But when it is internalized, the internal is always with you; and he is in the center of that internal. Hence you are never lonely.
The other side of the Christian answer is that when you get in touch with this living Jesus within, his love within you makes you interested in and loving toward others. That makes others in turn interested in and loving toward you. Your friendliness produces friendliness; hence you always have friends, and these friendships tend to keep you from being lonely.
Someone asked a girl if she didn’t get homesick while at camp, and she replied, “I really didn’t have time, for I was so busy keeping the other girls from being homesick that I didn’t think about being homesick myself.” The love of Jesus does just that; it lifts you out of thought of yourself and makes you interested in others, and thus it cures you of loneliness. The self-centered are invariably the lonely. When you are Jesus-centric, you become other-centric and hence free from self-centeredness and free from loneliness. The remedy for in-grownness is outgoingness. Love is outgoing. Jesus creates love and thus cures loneliness.
O Jesus, come in to flood every portion of my being with love and more love for everybody and everything at all times and everywhere. Then will my heart sing of the Eternal Presence. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My cure for my possible loneliness today is to go out and try to cure the lonely with my love.