Isolation or solitude?

It takes the fire of God to cleanse our hearts of selfishness in all its subtle forms. Even loneliness may be a form of selfishness.

One can reject friendship when it is not offered on the terms one chooses. One can reject the grace of God as Naaman the leper came perilously close to doing because it was not offered with the kind of ceremony he felt befitted his station. One can magnify his loneliness out of all proportion, as though he suffered something that is not common to man, forgetting that “this is life”- not more, not less. 

One can draw about himself a thick quilt of self-pity and isolate himself in other ways, but if one turns the loneliness into solitude and the solitude into prayer, there is release. It may require a willingness to be burned if burning is necessary as it was for Isaiah, but there is forgiveness and cleansing and peace. In Isaiah’s case, this was followed by God’s call for a volunteer to work for Him. With a heart at leisure now from itself, Isaiah could answer, “Here I am. Send me.” 

I was pondering this matter when the Lord brought straight to my kitchen table yesterday a living example of such a heart. A bright young woman and I were eating lamb sandwiches. I asked her if she is lonely. “Lonely?  Why should I be?” “You’re single. Most of the single people I know talk about being lonely.” With a look of surprise and then a laugh she said, “Oh no. You see, I have a sense of expectancy every day. What does the Lord want to do with me today? I have no agenda of my own.”

No agenda of my own. That is the key to Linda’s freedom. I continued to question her. Yes, she said, she knows what loneliness feels like- it’s isolation, when you think you can’t reach anybody, nobody reaches you, you’re cut off. You have your own agenda. 

“What do you mean by an agenda?” I asked.  “Thinking there’s only one solution and God has to give you that or nothing. You have a closed mind. A closed mind is a closed heart and a closed door.” 

Now I recognized the reason for the smile which seems always to light Linda’s face. I think it must come from her wholehearted acceptance of God‘s agenda. 

“I love solitude,” she said. “As I drove up here this morning (it was a dazzling winter morning of sunshine and blue sky and blue shadows on the snow) I didn’t have the radio on. I wasn’t listening to tapes. I was just quiet. I love times like that.” 

The heart which has no agenda but God’s is the heart at leisure from itself. It’s emptiness is filled with the love of God. It’s solitude can be turned into prayer. 

Taken from Elizabeth Elliot’s book, “Loneliness.” 

Others focused

Have you heard of them? Those rare people who minister to others inspite of their pain? Inspite of their loneliness? They look not on their own needs, but also on the needs of others? (Philippians 2:4) That’s my friend in long term care. She tells me it’s been 17 years now! Still very healthy in her mind and body, except for mobility issues, but she has a wheelchair to help with that. Tonight I learned, that she use to help feed some of the other residents who couldn’t feed themselves. She did that for 5 years, until under new management they wouldn’t allow it anymore. Food for thought... how can I be a blessing and minister to someone else’s need inspite of my own? “Lord, make me a blessing to someone today!” ❤️🙏🏻

“The answer to our loneliness is love- not our finding someone to love us, but our surrendering to the God who has always loved us with an everlasting love. Loving Him is then expressed in a happy and full-hearted pouring out of ourselves in love to others.” -Elisabeth Elliot

Belonging

As a single, you might find yourself asking, “Where, or to whom do I belong?” Everyone around you seems to be “coupled up.” May you find comfort in the words of this hymn written by Lucy A. Bennett, 

I am the Lord’s! O joy beyond expression,

  O sweet response to voice of love Divine;

Faith’s joyous “Yes” to the assuring whisper,

  “Fear not! I have redeemed thee; thou art Mine.”

I am the Lord’s! It is the glad confession

  Wherewith the Bride recalls the happy day,

When love’s “I will” accepted Him forever,

  “The Lord’s,” to love, to honor and obey.

I am the Lord’s! Yet teach me all it meaneth,

  All it involves of love and loyalty,

Of holy service, absolute surrender,

  And unreserved obedience unto Thee.

I am the Lord’s! Yes; body, soul, and spirit,

  O seal them irrecoverably Thine;

As Thou, Beloved, in Thy grace and fulness

  Forever and forevermore art mine.

Walking with Him

During Jesus three years as an itinerant rabbi he knew what it was to be weary, hungry, and homeless. The common people heard him gladly but the religious elite could not stand him. He was misquoted, misjudged, misrepresented, misunderstood. The Hebrew scholars were forever laying traps for him, challenging, quarrelling, quibbling. He was praised and scorned, followed and forsaken, loved and hated, listened to and rejected, crowned and crucified. He had every reason to feel lonely in the world of men, but it was thus that he learned and demonstrated for us the meaning of obedience – through the things that he suffered. If all he is asking of us just now is the willingness to accept the relatively small discipline of loneliness, can we not see it as a part of His gift of allowing us to walk with him? -Elizabeth Elliot 

Rejection

Several years ago a man’s experience of desolation gave birth to a hymn which has been for me and for many the balm of heaven. George Matheson went blind shortly after becoming engaged. His fiancé broke the engagement. Perhaps there is no more bitter loneliness than that of rejection. Matheson‘s grief, instead of turning to bitter resentment against the lady who had caused it, was transformed. Totally transformed. These profound and simple words show how that happened:

O Love that wilt not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,

I yield my flickering torch to thee;

My heart restores its borrowed ray,

That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from thee;

I lay in dust life’s glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be.

His blindness and rejection proved to be for George Matheson the very means of illuminating the love of God. He may have asked the age-old question, “Why?”, but God’s answer is always, Trust Me. Matheson turned his thoughts away from the woman he had lost, away from the powerful temptations to self-pity, resentment, bitterness toward God, skepticism of his Word, and selfish isolation which might so quickly have overcome him, and lifted up his “weary soul” to a far greater Love - one that would never let him go. -Elisabeth Elliot

Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

Dear friend, 

Do you ever find that you compare yourself with another? Someone more attractive or affluent? Do you feel jealousy creeping in? Do you sometimes ask yourself the following questions? “Why does she get to be married and I remain single?” Or maybe it’s, “I wish I was single like she is.” Maybe it’s about something completely different. Whatever the case, the Lord has a message of freedom for you today! 

When I start comparing myself with someone who I believe has something better, I stop, and think of this passage from John 21:12-23 especially verse 21 and 22. Here, the Lord is telling Peter not to concern himself with what He has in mind for the other disciple, but that Peter should simply follow the Lord. Another passage is, 2 Corinthians 10:12, “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”

These passages show me it’s a sin to compare myself with anyone else, that I must fix my attention solely on the Lord and follow Him. He loves me more than anyone else ever could! His plans for me are good, and not evil! (Jeremiah 29:11)

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, ‘til the things of earth grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace!” 🎶