Friday, September 3, 2021 by Donnie O’Fallon
“I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the house top,” (Psalm 102:6-7). The sparrow is small, insignificant so who cares? Like the owl, who gives a hoot?
Overcoming The Undercurrent of Loneliness
As I read Brother Vans sermon today, from last Sunday, my mind went to the above passage. Which I’ve read various times. Grief, anxiety, frustration, depression, doubt, loneliness can all have similar expressions and definitions. Like doubt, loneliness, can be a crippling and immobilizing force.
Loneliness is:
1. Being 6 years old and not know another first grader
2. Learning your parents are divorcing and you don’t where you’re going to be or
what will happen
3. Watching your baby entering school or your last child leave home
4. Coming home from your daughter’s wedding or your mate’s funeral
Loneliness is an empty place at the table, an empty bed, or a broken heart. You can be lonely in a room full of people. We try to fill the void in our lives with things, trinkets, gadgets, food, travel, and more but the loneliness does not leave.
Loneliness is not Solitude - you can be alone without being lonely. Jesus often pulled away to be alone and pray, Paul went to the Arabian Desert, John was alone when Jesus gave him The Revelation. You can be lonesome in a crowd. - Students leaving home for college, solders going to “Boot Camp.”
Loneliness is also feeling unloved; unnoticed; uncared for; cut off; unneeded; and unnecessary.
We’re told by psychologists that we all need these things: 1) someone love and share with intimately; 2) someone to understand us and how and what we’re feeling; 3) We all need to be needed and wanted.
The causes of Loneliness come because: 1) Feelings of rejection; 2) Feelings of insecurity; 3) We lose our sense of perspective; 4) Self - centeredness and no life is so empty as a self-centered life.
Loneliness is many different things to all of us, but one thing is the same – we can all find the fulfillment we need in Jesus. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said, “Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I’ll give you rest…” Remember the old hymn, “No Never Alone”, and also “What a Friend we Have in Jesus?”When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, a little man, I think he heard Jesus say to him in his heart, “He knows me, He understands me, He needs me, He loves me”! Jesus is a friend to all that sticks closer than a brother.
