Complimentary Story
May 2024Loneliness is a big problem today. We can still experience loneliness even if we live in large cities surrounded by people, or even if we use social media to connect with people from all over the globe. Not only can we still be lonely with social media and large communities, we might experience loneliness because of them. Being around people and connecting with people through an electronic device is not the same as face-to-face interaction or one-on-one communication.
When we are depressed, it is common for us not to want to be around other people. Like Elijah, we might want to isolate ourselves in a cave for forty days, but part of God’s solution was sending Elijah out with a mission to be in contact with other people.
Once, before my wife and I met, she battled with depression. She found that part of her solution included getting involved with a local congregation, speaking with the minister and his wife, and getting involved in helping people who were in need. This gave her social interaction and gave her a purpose and a mission. It moved the focus off of herself to those whom she could be helping and placed her in a setting where she could be ministered to. As she ministered to others, she prayed for God to go before her and use her. As she saw the needs of others, it caused her to pray more than usual and to pray more for others than about her own needs. Thus, a cyclical process was taking place. She connected with God for help and ministering, then ministering to others caused her to connect even more closely with God. All of this was extremely healing for her.
Being part of a local congregation and using our God-given talents in ministering to others will help prevent depression.
Even before God drew Elijah out of the cave and sent him on a mission, He first spent time with Elijah. It might seem logical that being with other people is the solution to loneliness, but that is not the solution. We can have lots of friends and still be lonely. We can have no friends and not be lonely.
The real solution to loneliness is making a mental choice to be content with whatever is our current situation. Loneliness is more a state of mind than a lack of friends. God is always with us, thus in reality we are never really alone. While that is a reality, it takes faith to believe and accept that. If you don’t have enough faith at the moment to believe that the God of the universe is right there with you, ask Him to give you more faith. He will give you more faith and He will give you the ability to believe and accept His promise of His presence with you. He loves you just as much as He loved Elijah.
There may be times when there is no person who understands our situation or no one who cares about us. Sometimes that is reality and other times it just feels that way. Either way, God always cares and God always understands.
Even during those times when we are physically or emotionally isolated from any humans who care about us or who understand our situation, we can still be content and not lonely. Elijah was all alone, except for God, when he was by the Brook Cherith eating nothing but bread delivered by ravens for many months, if not years. Yet, there is no record of his being lonely or depressed at that time. Elijah chose to accept his situation and thus chose not to be lonely. He chose to be content.
Paul, who had years of isolation, wrote from prison:
“Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. …I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:8,11-13 NIV).
Regardless of your situation I encourage you to choose not to be lonely, to choose to be content, to choose to believe that God is with you and that He will give you the strength you need.
Barbara Gurien was working at a hospital in Jellico, Tennessee, when she became very depressed. Being Jewish and from New York City, she was experiencing culture shock living in the mountains in the deep south in the 1980s. She was lonely and was grieving not having a husband or children. As we have learned, those things in themselves are not enough hits to cause depression, but they were factors. For several months she didn’t feel like eating, and she had a hard time sleeping. This of course just made matters worse. Barbara couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and she didn’t even realize she was depressed.
One of the department heads at the hospital knew something was wrong and encouraged (pushed) her to go to Wildwood Lifestyle Center in Wildwood, Georgia where she learned how to think right, eat right, and live right. In three weeks of following the program her depression left.
Learn more about Elijah, and other depressed people of the Bible in the book “Depressed People of the Bible,” available where most books are sold.
Author’s Disclaimer: The information I will be sharing is not intended for diagnosis or treatment of depression. It is a biblical reflection on people throughout the Scriptures who dealt with depression and how God carried them through it to healing and purpose.
