Anchorage: The Storm of Loneliness | Part 5 of 8ናሙና

Lonely In A Crowd

We’ve all experienced loneliness at some point, whether for a brief moment in time or for a considerable part of our lives. It’s easy to feel lonely even in a crowd, as easy as it is to feel left out and dejected when you find yourself alone. While the behavior of those around you can cause you to experience loneliness, it also has to do with the way you see yourself. What is the image of yourself that you carry around? Do you look down on yourself, think highly of yourself, or simply disregard yourself?

Growing up, I always considered myself to be an introvert. I preferred the silence of my thoughts over the noisy ambience of a crowd. It was a struggle for me to even start a conversation with someone, and at times I barely made it past a “Hey!” People like me prefer to keep to themselves and engage in less flamboyant activities. For a long time, I told myself that I liked it this way. I didn’t need friends because no one really understood me. I didn’t need to stand out and I definitely did not need to go out of my way to do things. However, with time, I realized I this was simply a convenient lie that I had chosen to believe. I wanted to fit in and have people I could confide in and relate to. I wasn’t afraid of trying, but I was terrified of failing despite the effort. Because of a few previous experiences of rejection, I had chosen to believe that the world was better off without me, or rather, I was better off without it. My loneliness was a result of my own doing, and in a way, my heart was hardened to the possibility of anything good coming out of opening myself up.

There are also those who are always surrounded by friends and never have a dull moment about them. Yet they feel lonely because what they show to others is only a deceptive façade; a partial representation of who they are. What we fail to realize is that no one can truly understand us or truly accept us fully. That’s why we need God! Only He can see the real you, the person beneath all of the pretense and fears, and the person that He created with a definitive purpose. Who can know and understand you better than the one who created you?

Once we die to our old self and are raised to life with Christ, we are given a new identity. Our old flesh and its weaknesses do not define us anymore. While we may still struggle with sins and weaknesses, we are on a journey of becoming like Christ. We are called to consciously and persistently renew our minds and choose to listen to God rather than the enticing lies of the enemy. It is God who gives us the grace and strength to face these challenges. Realizing that we don’t have to live with loneliness is the first step towards growing in the new identity we have in Christ.

Reflection

Have you shut yourself from the world for fear of being disappointed? Do you struggle to connect personally with those around you? The identity you have in Christ renders all your fears and weaknesses powerless against the power you now possess in Him. Are you willing to embrace that?