To Be Alone, or Not Alone. That is the Question

As I was preparing for the next Ladies Luncheon that will take place on July 1st, I was reading an article entitled, The Loneliness Epidemic in Today’s Christian Woman. The article gave a startling statistic from a Christian therapist, 85% to 90% of her clients deal with loneliness. John Ortberg, a Christian author and pastor offered the commentary, “Although loneliness is something the vast majority of people wrestle with, hardly anyone wants to openly address it.”

While reading this article, my mind couldn’t help but to reminisce on the season of my life when I was a part of that 90%.  I remember trying to keep myself busy with activities with my children or hoping to get invited to a social gathering, so that I didn’t have to struggle with feelings of loneliness when I had nothing to do.

I started to compare myself to other women who were always “busy” and assumed that their life was so much better than mine because they had what appeared to be a “fulfilled’ life. As women have begun to share their life with me, I have come to realize that many women wear a mask.  Who they project to society has become a facade that they hide behind, in order to feel validated.

In reality, many of us are becoming so isolated from each other because we often fill our lives with activities and events that have no real value. We are not willing to pause and take time to connect with each other and build new relationships because of past negative experiences and fear of future hurts. This leaves a void that we begin to fill with things that only offer temporary satisfaction such as, food, sex, drugs, shopping, promiscuity and other attention seeking behaviors. We haven’t learned to pause long enough to allow God to heal us and fill the void.