Loneliness is our soul's cry for intimacy. We can be surrounded by friends and family yet feel detached and abandoned. We can be married for many years and yet feel alone. We can pursue deep community with others, yet something about the soul's origin desires to be connected with the divine. What is loneliness? And why does our soul express it?
Episode Notes:
Loneliness is the soul’s cry for intimacy
Seasons of life can produce loneliness, regardless of your relationship status, friend group, family, etc.
Loneliness isn’t supposed to be escaped, nor do I believe enjoyed, it’s meant to draw something out of our soul that shapes us as humans.
We often experience loneliness in these ways:
Lack of intimacy with our spouse
Lack of intimacy with our community
Lack of intimacy with our creator
Seasons of loneliness are the soul searching for both the human and divine. To escape it perpetuates our soul's desire for intimacy. To become absorbed by it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. To understand and appreciate it is an opportunity to explore intimacy in a way never before experienced.
We are not alone, Scripture is full of people who experience deep level's of loneliness:
Elijah in the wilderness
Job in his suffering
King David in Psalm 142
Jesus as His father forsaken (abandoned) him
There is something about slowing down, recognizing your soul’s yearning in the season of loneliness, and questioning it with wisdom and truth.
Where is this loneliness coming from? Is it from not having a spouse? Is it from not having a close community? Is it from feeling far and lost from God?
Questions for you:
How have you engaged with your soul’s cry of loneliness?
Where have you experienced that source of loneliness, and what has your journey been like?
If you are in a season of loneliness right now, is your dominant feeling to run or escape?
Who we become as humans is imminently tied to our decisions through the wandering.
Music - The Force by HVRDVR
