According to Gallup, while only 6% of adults in Vietnam (the lowest worldwide) felt lonely during a lot of the day in 2023, 45% of people in Comoros (the highest) said the same. When people feel lonely, they are more likely to feel anger, sadness, stress, worry, and physical pain. They are also less likely to experience positive emotions.
That’s a disturbing fact. Can you relate?
In 2023 United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new Surgeon General Advisory calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in our country. Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness.
God never meant for any of us to experience loneliness. He created us for community, as it was in the beginning, when Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the cool of the Garden. They interacted in perfect harmony with the Trinity who made them in their image and likeness – created with incredible purpose.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:26-27 CSB)
I need that reminder often. When life seems so hard, and loneliness comes gnawing at my door. Isolation is not the answer. I have found the greatest antidote to the feeling of loneliness is to schedule lunch or coffee with a friend. Share the struggles that come your way with a safe person and God will provide the encouragement needed in your community of fellow Believers.
The enemy loves to get us alone and tell his lies just as he did in the beginning. Don’t give him an inch, or he’ll take a mile, as the old saying goes.
And that’s the mid-week memo.
Steve
