On one of the blogs I frequent, I asked a question about singles and the church, as in how should the church deal with loneliness? One of the responses I received was: “Get ’em a puppy….”
I think that so often we as a society and most particularly as The Church, tend to minimize the emotion of loneliness. I wrote a bit about it here and other places but the link in that post to Messy Christian’s post is far more insightful. Another response I received (to the point) was:
Social events is, I think, one half of it. The other would be helping them feel part of the rest of the body of the church. Oh I don’t know, adopt a single. Have a family keep in touch with a single. Invite them over for dinner. See what needs they may have (broken car, dead A/C, whatever). Hey! Show you care, what a concept!Being single is not a disease or a stage in life towards marriage. It is often unrecognized in church as one of the most complicated stages in life. Some have never been married, some have and are now divorced and still others widowed. Some have kids, other never have and still others are empty nester’s.
Loneliness is the toughest issue and belonging comes right along with that. Help them(us) feel part of the church in what ever way you can find and even if it is not a great success you are at least showing you can and that can go a long way, if genuine.
I could feel the emotion come seeping through the words written. And it hit a nerve today as I think of the problems one of the couples in our class is going through and how they are letting the momentum of the moment drive them apart, hurling towards divorce. We often think in the moment but not of the aftereffects. As I’ve been delving into Kris Kristofferson’s song’s the past couple of days, he addresses this phenomenon is his song, Come Sundown:
And it hurts to know it’s over,
For the hurt, lord, has just begun.
’cause this morning, she’s just leavin’,
But, come sundown, she’ll be gone.
Isn’t that what we do? This morning, she’s leaving. Tonight, the loneliness sets in.
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