Loneliness

Psalm 102:1-7, “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily. For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.”

This is s true picture of loneliness. I’m guessing that everyone has felt all alone at some point in their lives. Many feel all alone right now. Maybe you are all alone.

What are some causes for loneliness? What has caused your loneliness?

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Joey. He was very lonely, and he got into trouble a lot. When Joey turned to his “friends”, they thought he wasn’t cool enough to be part of their group. When he turned to his true friends, they weren’t cool enough for him. Joey’s leaders saw potential in him, and encouraged him to serve God. Joey continued to wander through life without purpose or direction, always getting into trouble out of boredom, feeling like nobody accepted him, and that who he was wasn’t good enough for anyone…not even himself. Over time, a good friend entered Joey’s life who loved and accepted Joey for who he was. This friend had an even more difficult time growing up, and understood all about loneliness. Joey and his new friend encouraged each other to be better than either of them were, and their love grew. Joey and this friend eventually got married and made lots of dish bubbles together!

As I look back on my life as a teen, I recognize that my position in life wasn’t to be popular, wasn’t to be athletic and wasn’t to be in the “in” crowd. By trying to be something I wasn’t caused great loneliness and dis-satisfaction. I see my story in many of you teens, and although I can’t go back in time and guide myself (like in the movie “Back to the Future”), I can try to help you conquer your loneliness by asking you to consider the following:

On a scale of 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high) rate the following:
1. How popular are you with other teens?
2. How well are you accepted by other friends?
3. How well are you accepted by your parents?
4. How prone are you to feeling sorry for yourself?
5. How determined are you to take responsibility for your own life?

My guess is that many of you rated yourselves low in questions 1, 2, 3 & 5, and high on #4. What I want you to see is that it doesn’t matter what your answers are to questions 1, 2 or 3 – what really matters is your answers to 4 & 5.

We recently talked about making good commitments and sticking with them. Here’s another commitment that is VERY worthwhile making…are you ready? Here it is. “I (your name here) commit to stop feeling sorry for myself, no matter what my circumstances, and with God’s help I take responsibility for my own life.”

As a Christian, once you make this commitment, you will stop making decisions based on the approval of others, and start making them based on the approval of the One who designed you and allowed you to be you – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Living for Him is the ONLY way to true fulfillment. True fulfillment shatters loneliness!

Also, by making this kind of commitment will help you realize that you need to stop “floating” through life, find the purpose that God has for you, and figure out how to fulfill that purpose.

Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” This verse does not say that God will show you ordinary things when you call upon Him, but He will show you GREAT and MIGHTY things…things that you currently don’t even know about…things that will fulfill your life and help you conquer loneliness.