Loneliness

[00:00:00] Foreign. [00:00:06] Chuck Allen here. And thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast. On this Monday, let's talk about this before the fall. [00:00:15] I'm so glad you've joined me. And today, let's go back to the beginning. Not just the beginning of the Bible, but the beginning of, well, everything. The beginning of us. Genesis opens up with this beautiful rhythm. God makes something, and God calls it good light, good land, good waters, trees, creatures good. Then God makes humanity. And God says something is not good. He says it's not good for the man to be alone. Now just think about that. This is before Genesis 3, before the serpent, before the tree, before rebellion, before shame. It was before hiding and before sin had fractured everything. [00:00:55] Before humanity had a sin problem. Humanity had a loneliness problem. [00:01:01] And God addressed loneliness first. [00:01:04] That should make us pause for just a second, because so often we enjoy the spiritual life as much and mostly about behavior management. We really do. I don't think God intended it to be that way, but we really do. We imagine the spiritual life is mostly about behavior management. [00:01:24] Stop doing this. I just want to encourage you. Stop. [00:01:27] Stop. [00:01:29] Just like, stop doing this and start doing that. And pray more, worry less, be better, try harder. That's kind of how we saw everything. [00:01:39] But at the very beginning, God looks at a man in a perfect garden, surrounded by beauty, purpose, provision, even the presence of God, and says, there's something missing. He is alone. He's lonely. [00:01:53] Adam had a garden, but he didn't have a companion. He had work, but he didn't have a partnership. He had purpose, but he didn't have someone beside him to share the purpose. And God says that's not good. [00:02:07] Not because Adam was incomplete in his value, not because he was less loved, not because marriage is the only cure for loneliness, but because we were made in the image of a relational God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exists in eternal love and communion. And when God made us in his image, he made us for relationship with him and with one another. [00:02:34] You can have a full calendar and still be incredibly lonely. You can sit in a crowded room and you can feel wildly alone. You can lead people, care for people, preach to people, work beside people, and still feel as if no one actually knows you. [00:02:50] Loneliness is not merely the absence of people. It's the absence of being known, of being welcomed and connected. [00:02:58] And before God ever confronts sin in Genesis 3, he creates relationship. In Genesis 2. [00:03:04] That matters, because relationships are not an accessory to the Christian life. [00:03:10] They're part of of God's original design for our ability to Flourish. You know, we need people who can remind us who we are when we forget. We need friends who can tell us the truth when we're adrift. We need a table. We need a small group. We need a church family. We need a trusted conversation. A person who knows the real story, not just the polished version of what we post or how we perform. [00:03:35] And then Genesis 3 happens. The serpent speaks. The humans take what God told them not to take. And immediately the effects of sin show up in relationships. They hide from God, they cover themselves from each other. Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent. Sin always isolates us. [00:03:53] It convinces us we should hide. It tells us that if people knew the whole truth, they'd walk away. It turns people we were meant to love into problems that we try to manage or, or threats that we try to avoid, or maybe even people to blame. But notice what God does. God comes looking. He says, where are you? [00:04:15] That's not the question of an angry God who has lost track of Adam's location. God knows exactly where Adam is. It's the question of a God inviting a hiding human back into relationship. [00:04:29] The question today is where are you? [00:04:32] Where have you gone? Why are you hiding? And maybe that's a question worth hearing today. Where are you? Not geographically, spiritually, emotionally, relationally? Are you withdrawing? Are you carrying a burden nobody knows about? Have you convinced yourself that needing people is weakness? Have you become so busy helping everyone else that you have no one helping you? [00:04:55] God didn't design you to carry on alone or to carry this life alone. Yeah, there's a place for solitude, Jesus, practice it. Silence and prayer can restore the soul, but solitude is chosen time with God. Loneliness, on the other hand, is the ache of disconnection. [00:05:14] Well, God's answer to loneliness. [00:05:16] It's not shame, it's presence, it's community, it's relationship. [00:05:21] Maybe today your next faithful step is simple. Send the text, make the call, invite someone to coffee, tell the truth to a trusted friend. [00:05:29] Show up at the table, let someone pray for you. Because relationships are not a distraction from spiritual growth. Healthy, honest, Christ centered relationships are one of the places spiritual growth actually happens. God corrected loneliness before he had to correct sin. [00:05:47] And even after sin entered the story, God kept moving toward people, calling them out of hiding, covering their shame, and eventually through Jesus, reconciling us to himself and to one another. [00:06:02] You're not meant to do this alone. As a matter of fact, God made sure of it in his plan. God bless you, friend. Thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast.