The Antidote to Loneliness

When I ask myself how many lonely Christians are in the world today, the probable answer overwhelms me. I believe there should be no such thing as a lonely Christian. One of the greatest single changes we need to make is rethinking our picture of what it means to be a Christian. It means to be a member of God’s family. Not just in some nice theological phrase, but in the membership of a real family.

To be lonely is a very unhappy condition. Yet, in today’s world, there are millions and millions of lonely people. Even though the population of the earth is increasing rapidly, and even though many people live in large cities, these large cities and this highly populated earth of ours are filled with lonely people.

It is possible to be lonely even in the midst of a crowd. It is possible to be lonely in a big city. In fact, that is the worst form of loneliness—to be surrounded by people, and, at the same time, to feel cut off from them by an invisible barrier that you have no idea how to break through.

Loneliness is not God’s plan for the life of any individual. From eternity, God is a Father. The source of all fatherhood—of every family, in heaven and on earth—is God. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:15:

“From [God] the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”

Right at the beginning of human history, God provided a mate for the first man because He decided, “It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). That is God’s attitude. He wants to take us out of our loneliness and to set us in the family of God. He wants to give us brothers and sisters with whom to share His love.