Are you lonely?

Elvis crooned, “Are you lonesome tonight, do you miss me tonight, are you sorry we drifted apart?”  Then I thought about the Beatles “All the lonely people“, talking about Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie watching other folks be happy. I did a search on songs with lonely in the title, there were hundreds! Then I did a word search and had to laugh out loud at the description that came up on the Urban Dictionary: “An adjective describing one who finds him or her self looking up words such as lonely on urbandictionary.com because he or she misses his or her loved one, or has not yet found one to be named as such.”

I am not one that gets lonely, when I find a moment to myself I treasure it! I will admit to being nostalgic about the golden years gone by, but not particularly lonely. Wikipedia describes it this way: Loneliness is an unpleasant feeling in which a person experiences a strong sense of emptiness and solitude resulting from inadequate levels of social relationships. But what is it to you? I heard a lady say that she was feeling lonely because her husband was working too much and she wanted him to change so she could be happy. Somehow she came to the realization that she was lonely for herself! I thought about that, is that it? When I look around in a crowd, I can almost spot the people who have a lonely heart, and most of the times they spot me, I am a soft touch and have a very tender heart for a person who seems ‘set apart’. Matthew 8:20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”  Why does a person feel empty when they are in solitude? Could they are lonely for a missing relationship with God? When Jesus went up into the mountain to have alone time, was He really alone? No, He was visiting with Father God. When I am by myself I have a running conversation with the Father; I pose questions, I explain why I do certain things that I do, I get His advice on what needs to be said in certain situations and I pray for people that have told me their needs.

Does living for God mean you will always have things easy? Ask the Apostle Paul and let’s see what he has to say! 2Corinthians 11:23-27 I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. He had victory because he had relationship with Jesus. We all need companionship, but we also need the Lord. Jeremiah 17:5 “Cursed is the strong one who depends on mere humans, Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside as dead weight He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie , out of touch with the good earth. He lives rootless and aimless in a land where nothing grows.”

If you’re lonely tonight and you know the Lord, you know you are loved.