Quick answer: Many people carry their darkest struggles alone for years, surrounded by people who know about them but have never come close enough to truly know them. Healing begins when someone is willing to meet you at your “coal face”: to listen without fixing, to see past the […]
Loneliness
19 posts
When guilt isolates, “I am with you” is the only bridge back to hope. The power of solidarity helps us in the face of judgment and shame. How are they going to respond? How will they react? They had done some things they knew would go against what everyone thought […]
Hidden away? Longing to be sought after? In the parable of the pearl merchant, we find a lover with a quest. Imagine yourself as a child and you’re at a friend’s birthday party. A game is played. Hide and seek. Your friend, the one who is celebrating the birthday, is […]
It can feel very lonely when we don’t experience love. A sense of abandonment. To know that ‘I am loved’ is like the permanent embrace of presence. To be loved and know it deeply is, I think, the quest of every heart. According to early Church writer Paul, it is […]
In a world of loneliness, we need the reassurance that ‘I am known’. From this, intimacy grows. One of the questions many people face is ‘Do I matter?’ For many, it feels like they don’t matter to anyone at all. That they are just a blip of dust in […]
We think we can do it all, manage life ourselves, but you simply can’t. You discover you can’t make it on your own. They were told by their closest companion that they should not need others to affirm them. That they should be able to do it themselves. They should […]
When no one understands you, it can create a deep sense of loneliness. Perhaps there are reasons for the lack of being known. Forgive them anyway. They were carrying something precious. Their inner world. Thoughts, feelings, motivations, desires, pains, and joys. Everything that goes on within their life and sometimes […]
There’s work, home, and loneliness, but maybe a third place can be the place of hope. Let’s make one together. I’m looking for a third place, and I think you might be too. It’s a place where I feel I belong and there is no pressure to perform, to do, […]
There is a kind of loneliness that feels like a huge void has been opened up, and you’re broken on the other side. But there is one that crosses the void to bring connection. I’m still trying to understand why they avoided me. They knew I was in a mess, […]
A feeling of being abandoned can be like a cold chill across the soul. But God is always at work, so we need to remind ourselves of this truth. I was recently at the help desk in a large store returning some items, and I noticed a small boy in […]