Ever felt alone in a crowd? Ever felt alone in a crowd at church?
One of our biggest struggles since moving to Arizona for both Brian and me has been loneliness. Although we got plugged into an amazing church right away, and we made some great friends, we missed having friends around our age. We also realized it’s a lot harder to hang out when everyone has full-time jobs. Eventually, we adjusted, for the most part. I especially have had a hard time, because I was home doing school alone, and now that I’m graduated, I’m home doing work alone.
So when Brian suggested I listen to a sermon series by Chip Ingram from Living on the Edge about loneliness, I listened to it the very next day. I had bathrooms to clean anyway, since we have a house guest this weekend. Well, not really a guest. He owns the house, and he’s our landlord. Anyway, he’s here for the weekend working on putting the house on the market.
You would think that being a believer and having a relationship with Jesus should be enough to take away any loneliness, right? While that’s true in a way, Chip explained that we were created to desire relationships with others. In the Garden of Eden, Adam had perfect fellowship with God. And yet God said it was not good for man to be alone, and made a companion for him.
I don’t want to give it all away, but in part 2, Chip says there are two keys to curing loneliness:
- Have a right perspective of church
- Have a right perspective of relationships
