Loneliness - 4

Continuing our examination of loneliness: We naturally run from pain. We try to avoid loneliness. We resist trials, but they are often blessings in disguise: They rip away the flimsy fabric of our self-sufficiency, revealing God's desire to weave in us the immeasurable deeper confidence of “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Trials, like the loss of anything, bring the scum to the top in our lives: selfishness, insecurity, a critical spirit, resentments, pride, jealousy. When we praise God for a trial, we embrace His plan to remove the scum which in turn, refines and beautifies us. When we complain, we resist His plan and stuff the impurities back into our lives. This necessitates yet another trial or more loneliness to accomplish His purpose, delaying the unfolding of His plan for us and our loved ones.

It has been said: "I don't envy those who have never known any pain, physical or spiritual, because I strongly suspect that the capacity for pain and the capacity for joy are equal. Only those who have suffered great pain are able to know equally great joy." Madeleine L'Engle

Again, let me say, When that which I love is gone - through divorce, death or business demise, there are two options: resist it or embrace it. To resist is to fight the change which only increases bitterness and depression. Or embrace it - receive the catastrophy as allowed by God, in a sense, from the hand of God, and cooperate with the changes that must follow.

By instinct, we resist change. Change is uncomfortable. But change, we must, if we’re to become healthy through the loss. There is a fairly definable sequence of events that take place in loss and the need for change.

We'll examine that in tomorrow's post.