November 6
Psalm 13
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
Loneliness can be quite painful. There are those who like their alone time. Some time to just be to ourselves. But loneliness is more than that. It is that we have no one, even when we are in the midst of people. It feels like we are standing by ourselves, even when the crowd around us seems so connected and contented.
Robert Putnam laments the collapse of societal connectedness in his book: Bowling Alone. Not just looking at society in general, but seeing it in churches, civic groups, and many other social groups within society.
I was reminded today of the loneliness that exists in people as they look for connection. Hearing of someone coming to several churches over the years and finding that their presence was not very welcome. Maybe welcome in the back. Welcome if they kept to themselves. Or welcome if they received something and then moved on. But not the ones wanted as part of the “real church”.
People are looking for connection to God and to people. How will we lament our failures as the whole church to connect people with us and with God? How will we rise up and change our culture and our attitudes so that all will see that they are welcome. There is a place in God’s grace for each of us, and for all who come along with us.
Song – Build Your Kingdom Here
Prayer
Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow human beings throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger, in loneliness and fear. Give them today the material things of life as well as the belonging with you and your church that we all need and long for. In the name of Christ who enfolds us in his love and grace, Amen.