by Eugene Higgins
Loneliness
Talk about a pandemic! Loneliness seems to be a global affliction which completely disregards a person’s status, wealth, or success. Consider these facts:
- In the US, the fostering and adoption of dogs has seen a 700 percent rise since the outbreak of the coronavirus. People have grown so lonely that, denied human company, they are finding companionship in household pets.
- In 2017, the 19th Surgeon General of the United States, writing about the “loneliness epidemic,” said, “Loneliness is a growing health epidemic. We live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s. Today, over 40% of adults in America report feeling lonely, and research suggests that the real number may well be higher … During my years caring for patients, the most common pathology I saw was not heart disease or diabetes; it was loneliness.
- In the UK, the Silver Line Charity, which was founded in 2012 by Dame Esther Rantzen, is a 24-hour helpline which is available 365 days a year as “a befriending service to combat loneliness.” It receives around 10,500 calls every week from older people all over the UK, “with 53% of callers saying they have literally no one else to speak to.”
- When a 2017 report said nine million of the UK’s 67 million people feel lonely some or all of the time, Prime Minister Theresa May announced (in 2018) “a ministerial lead for loneliness who will work with the commission, businesses and charities to shine a light on the issue and pull together all strands of government to create the first-ever strategy.” As a result, the country’s Minister for Sport and Civil Society added Loneliness to its portfolio, making lawmaker Tracey Crouch the nation’s first “Minister for Sport, Civil Society and Loneliness.” Her assignment: lead a cross-government group to act against loneliness and make the issue a consistent parliamentary priority. Ignoring the spiritual problem at the root of this, the UK did what all governments do – it threw money at the problem. Marking the one-year anniversary since the launch of the it’s loneliness strategy, the government announced “a further £2 million of grant funding to support community projects tackling loneliness.”
- One famous actress, whose name I will omit, said: “The main thing that I sensed back in my childhood was this inescapable yearning that I could never satisfy. Even now at times I experience an inescapable loneliness and isolation.”
- A short time ago, a scientist from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine said she was trying to develop a pill that could help people struggling with chronic loneliness. She said the pills will be different from commonly used anti-depressants in that they would “target loneliness more specifically.”
- A 2019 article noted this: “Loneliness, public-health experts tell us, is killing as many people as obesity and smoking. … Germans are lonely, the bon vivant French are lonely, and even the Scandinavians — the happiest people in the world according to the UN’s World Happiness Report — are lonely, too … Japan is a country now in the throes of an epidemic of kodokushi, roughly translated as ‘lonely deaths.’ Though people have more money, better health care, better health, better housing, and more education, and live longer than at any time in history, they — especially young people — are unhappier than at any time since data collection began.”
- An article titled, “All the followers, none of the friends,” made this significant statement: “Social media-savvy millennials may make up the loneliest generation in America.”
Well, if you weren’t feeling lonely or sad when you began reading this email, you probably are now! So, in contrast to all of this, here are experiences of a different kind:
Perhaps because he knew that many just now are feeling isolated and alone, a US Marine, who was taken captive in 1979, recently shared his experience of imprisonment and what helped him survive. Rodney Sickmann was serving at the US Embassy in Iran on November 4, 1979, when he and 51 other Americans were taken captive by an armed mob. They were held for 444 days and subjected to extreme isolation involving mental and physical abuse. For the first 30 days of his captivity, Sickmann was chained to a chair and was only allowed outside seven times during that period. Afterwards, he was imprisoned along with 2 other Americans. He attributes his survival during that 444-day nightmare to three things: prayer to God, keeping a positive outlook, and the presence and friendship of the two other hostages with whom he had been isolated. In other words, it was a huge factor in his survival to know that he was not alone.
Sir John Franklin has a monument in Westminster Abbey, but he is buried in an unknown spot in North America. He was in the Battle of Trafalgar and later joined an expedition to cross the Polar Sea. It was said of him that he “never allowed himself to sink into depression or loneliness.” Sir John’s secret, he said, was Christ. Here is what he wrote his sister once from an ice-bound camp: “If a man should inquire, ‘How can I be saved?’ would it not be joy for him to find that the gospel points the way? Christ who died for the salvation of sinners is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” One of his crew wrote, “He is quite a Bishop! We have church morning and evening on Sunday. The men say they would rather have him than half the parsons of England.” He was lost during an expedition in May of 1845, while exploring the Arctic. After years of searching, a boat finally was found frozen in the ice. In it were two skeletons and Sir John Franklin’s Bible. Psalm 139:9–10 was underlined, “If I… dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.”
“Even there!” Martha’s words to the Lord Jesus in John 11, “even now …” remind us that whatever our circumstances may be, He is able to meet our need. When the Psalmist said “even there,” it reminds us that wherever we may be, He is with us. You are not alone. You can never be alone. Your Heavenly Father watches over you. A Divine Person indwells you. Your loving Savior walks with you. He has said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”
Forgive the use of the modern translation – this is how the image below came to me years ago. The next time you feel lonely, just remember there was someone who endured absolute loneliness, ultimate, searing, heart-breaking loneliness, so that you would never be alone. Here is a good reminder for a Lord’s Day when so few of us can break bread.