True You: Finding Beauty In AuthenticitySample

Loneliness 

These six words from Scripture have impacted me in a way that has caused me to live differently. It’s said that loneliness and social isolation are among the greatest challenges of our time. In A Simple Path, Mother Teresa wrote, “The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty; it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God” (1995, 79).

Loneliness is something we’ve all experienced. We can be in a room filled with people and still feel a profound sense of loneliness. I think of the Last Supper and what Jesus was doing during that time. Yes, he was sharing about his body being broken, and his blood being spilled. The beauty of what we know as communion. What has always fascinated me about this story and the artistic pieces inspired by it throughout history is that this entire conversation took place at a table, which begs the question: Was Jesus teaching us something even deeper? Was there a greater message—one that addressed what Mother Teresa acknowledged, and what we consider today as a source of pain in society? 

I think it’s time we start building longer tables. It’s time we let those tables become our churches—our places of connection through a communion. My husband and I lead a monthly gathering called “The Gathering Cloud Table,” and it’s a night where everyone is welcome, and everyone knows there is a seat at the table. Nothing is asked of them; nothing is required, and there’s an assurance that they will be seen, known, and heard.

God sees us, knows us, and hears us. He places the lonely people in families, where we can be seen, known, and heard.