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How long has it been since I've been lonely? A decade maybe, or maybe more. I'm not sure.
Yet I live in a world filled with lonely people. I step into classrooms filled with lonely people. I walk through the grocery store of lonely people. My digital footsteps walk around lonely people. And I wonder if maybe I even live in a home with lonely people.
Lonely can stifle a person. One can be surrounded with beating hearts and bubbling laughter and still feel stark still solitude. Lonely strangles life. How easily I forget since I'm not lonely.
Is there a cure for lonely?
Absolutely.
Although not a shot or a pill or a patch, there is a cure. Love. Supernatural love. Accepting love. Knowing love. The love of a Savior. And loving back.
So I will love people more. Even when I don't wanna, even when I don't have time, even when it's inconvenient, I will love more. I'm loved by a big God and He positions me to love others. And I know, because if I remember back to a lonely time, sometimes it's hard to accept love. But when we do, when love gets into a heart and fills up all of the cracks and pits, we leave lonely alone.
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Stopping in from Lisa Jo's blog. Enjoyed reading your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful! I hope you don't mind if I share it. I also really love this 5 Minute Friday challenge. I don't know why I haven't come across it. I'm glad I did today! Maybe I'll try it!
ReplyDeleteThanks Holly! Yes, please share. I hope to see your "FMF" post soon. :)
DeleteThis is lovely - and so true. I am not lonely because I let myself take on challenges God sends my way.
ReplyDeleteThis was the topic at the Global Leadership Summit yesterday - there are lonely people in our congregations (and our classrooms). What will we do about it? Bill Hybels, Bob Goff, today Brene Brown - it is a good conversation.
ReplyDeleteI love this. I love everything about it. This entire paragraph really got me:
ReplyDeleteLonely can stifle a person. One can be surrounded with beating hearts and bubbling laughter and still feel stark still solitude. Lonely strangles life. How easily I forget since I'm not lonely.
Simply beautiful, Ruth. And what an important reminder.
Ah, this is good. This especially: "So I will love people more. Even when I don't wanna, even when I don't have time, even when it's inconvenient, I will love more. I'm loved by a big God and He positions me to love others." YES!! I want to do this, too. I'm not really lonely, either--alone, but never lonely, because I know the love of my Savior PLUS the love of my husband, family and friends.
ReplyDeleteBut there are those who are lonely. So I can love them.
Thank you for this beautiful reminder!
Oh, this is a lovely reminder that we are never truly alone!
ReplyDeleteAnd it is good to remember people can be lonely in a group, too. Thanks Ruth!
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