Beyond Social Media: Finding God in Loneliness

So, I’m having a great talk this weekend with a friend reflecting about how my treatments and things are going. He said, “man, it looks like you’re doing great! Flying, riding and staying active, etc. “. To a degree, he’s right. I feel pretty good given the circumstances, but don’t be fooled by what you see on a social media post. I told him people get to see what I want them to see. They see a cool clip of me flying for 30 seconds but they don’t see the landing every 15 minutes to tend to myself and other ugly details that I won’t go into. While things have improved with a new treatment, my point of the story is this, we can be lulled into a sense of false reality. This “reality” that we see can lead to a feeling of loneliness despite being surrounded by people. With social media so prevalent in the world we live in these days, it’s easy to get caught up in what we are allowed to see of others. If we are not careful, it can lead us to believe we are alone. Look, I personally enjoy social media. It serves a great purpose for me. But, one of the problems that we might get from it is to assume that everybody around you has it all together, has tons of friends, is financially secure, has a great family, and is really happy. You are the odd man or odd woman out. You can’t trust anybody because you’ve been hurt before. Nobody likes you for who you are; nobody understands you. It’s easy to get lonely, don’t. Look, those things are almost certainly not true, but they seem very real. With the cancer diagnosis and the abrupt changes that have followed, I struggle. And in the battle between your feelings and the logical part of your brain, feelings always win. Where do you go with your loneliness?Go to God. He will hear your troubles without judgment. He will speak to you, if you let him, about his unconditional love and acceptance of you and about his free and full forgiveness of your sins. His heart hurts when you hurt, and he will hear and act on your prayers. Our Savior Jesus experienced a terribly lonely walk to the cross, and he can feel what you feel.“God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.”Psalms 68:6 In his own way, at his own time, God will give you people in your life who will accept and love you, people with whom you can talk and serve and love. Watch for them. They are God’s answer to your prayers.Be Nice, Grace Wins