PresbyCan Daily Devotional

One morning, while I was at my computer, my 15-year-old son interrupted my thoughts with these words: "Mom, do you know what the biggest problem in society is? It is loneliness!"

He had no idea that, at that very moment, my fingers were poised over my keyboard ready to type this title: The Sacred Place of Loneliness.

That was in the 1990s. My son was eager to share an observation which experts would discover through extensive research. Loneliness is at the root of our crisis among youth.

I invite you to consider loneliness, not as a hopeless plight, but as an inner void meant to be filled by God, and God alone.

Consider it, therefore, as a sacred place. For here is where we discover God. Here, His Spirit intertwines with ours. Here, we learn to distinguish God's voice from all other input.

In times of deepest loneliness, God often prepares His loved ones for their destiny. Abraham stood alone when he ventured to the unknown. Joseph was left abandoned in prison. The disciple John was banished on Patmos, where he received his revelation. We, too, can discover the best things of God in the experience of loneliness.

As we learn to walk alone with God, we no longer rely on the attention and validation of others. We lose our craving for false satisfactions and trendy notions. We become free to think and to create.

Creative inspiration has often been birthed through agonizing loneliness and rejection: art, literature, music, poetry, theology, and much more. These visionary works possess a lasting quality. They can touch the depths of the human spirit because they did not arise merely from the superficialities of the day.

Let's not be quick to flee from the agony of loneliness, but rather, to learn to embrace it. In truth, we are not alone, for our heavenly Father is with us. Jesus said, "Yet I am not alone, because my Father is with me." (John 16:32 NIV) As we learn to be satisfied with God's presence, our pain-filled loneliness becomes transformed into peace-filled solitude.

He who will fly as an eagle does, into the higher levels where cloudless day abides, and live in the sunshine of God, must be content to live a comparatively lonely life. No bird is so solitary as the eagle. … God seeks eagle-men. … We must dare to be alone. – Streams in the Desert, December 20, L. B. Cowman

Prayer: Dear Father of compassion, we are terrified of loneliness, of not mattering to anyone. Train us to enjoy Your presence in the depths of our being, that we may dare to be alone — and find new inspiration. Amen.

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