Mark let’s talk about loneliness. Everyone suffers it. Change of life, times when you move away from friends or they from you. When your kids are no longer dependent on you. Crisis brings it too. Illness, disagreements, death. Suddenly those you hold dear are gone. I want to talk to you about that.
I wish you wouldn’t.
Why?
It’s not a subject I like to think about.
You think about it all the time. Everyone does. Whatever particular loneliness you are suffering, whoever you are, that loneliness is never far from your thoughts.
God this is a pretty depressing conversation. I’ve spent so much of my life with a negative outlook. But now that you’ve drawn that to my attention I’ve made a commitment to face life with a brave and cheerful face. I’m trying to learn a better approach. So why on earth are you going on about loneliness?? If everyone suffers from it, then why dwell on it? I’m sitting here in a bush hut, a beautiful place. The Weka Weka Valley in northern New Zealand. It’s summer and yet there’s a cold wind coming in from the coast. Fire burning in the old fire place, no power out here, just candles. Doors open to the evening. There’s a Tui sitting way up high above me in the Rata tree, singing the day to a close. I’m loving this, and you want to talk about loneliness?
I sure do.
Why?
Because it’s a human condition, just like hunger and tiredness, and the solution for hunger isn’t always to put food in your mouth, neither to sleep whenever you’re tired. Sometimes, hunger and tiredness are good, healthy, and can push you on. Loneliness is the same. It’s a natural state. The sharp feeling that comes from the absence of someone you love. Or even just the lack of company.
I get it God, you’re touching some raw and tender spots, so can we get this finished quickly? What’s your point?
The point is that loneliness is meant to push you to look for company from me. Real, human, warm conversational company. Not your ‘oh-God-in-heaven-your-servant-comes-to-you’ sort of company. And I don’t mean I want you to come to me and ask me to ease the pain of loneliness, that’s not my job, it’s yours. You are supposed to meet the need of loneliness by seeking actual human conversational company from me.
So many people, when they lose someone close, go looking for someone else to replace the gap, but that state, that normal human state that arises from the loss of someone close is meant to push you into seeking company from me.
Of course humans need other humans, but first and foremost they need me. Instead you all fill your lives with other people, making sure there are people close enough so that you never have to feel lonely. Without realising it your relationships become a panacea for loneliness. For instance parents end up in close relationship with their kids to ward off loneliness, they amass friends and casual contacts to ward off loneliness. That’s not my plan! Your kids are there for you to build into them, and as you do, you are built too. They’re not there to supply your need, you’re there to supply some of theirs, primarily to show them how to supply their own.
Here’s the secret Mark; your relationships with people are meant to be fuelled by your relationship with me. Not in some religious, ‘I’m-so-happy-I-met-Jesus-now-I’m-going-to-tell-everyone-else-about-it’ sort of way. Not that. That’s ok in small doses, but I’m talking about normality, about regular life.
I want you to seek a real, human relationship with me, one where we talk back and forward. When that happens it fills you up. When that happens you’ll begin to brim with the quiet confidence and balanced happiness that always comes to humans when you’re in close friendship, and eventually, in love. Only this time with the Creator.
The human animal is designed so that when lonely, which will happen often, you seek conversation - from me. Not primarily from others, FROM ME. I don’t want you coming to me and asking me for spiritual soothing and to take away the loneliness. You’ve seen that done in spiritual circles and if I’m asked I’ll do it. But it’s not what I want. I’m talking about allowing the loneliness to spur you on to an actual conversation with me. Having lost the conversation with someone else, to come looking for it, a real human, back and forward conversation with me.
Without that you’ll always be needy. Always missing and needing conversation with others. That’s not good. It will see your relationships come from the wrong place. From need. It will see your human relationships founded on the need for company. Whereas the plan is for you have your need for company met by me. Actual human conversational company supplied by God. You’re human, the only way you can receive company is as a human. Human sort of company. You’re designed to have that met by me.
And then you can go out and provide company to others and enjoy theirs without needing it. Your company with others needs to be founded on the desire to provide it, rather than the need to get it. You’ve seen that once before in someone. This ability I’m talking about to provide company rather than the need to take it. You saw it and it astounded you. A rare and beautiful strength, so attractive, but so unlike anything you’d ever come across that you didn’t understand it, didn’t know how to relate to it.
So be strong, be creative. Develop, build, live life. Enjoy. Be you. Do not be needy. Be in conversation with me. Get your need for company, actual human company, met by me. It’s not a stop gap, it’s what you were designed for.
Mark Holloway
THE FREEDOM DIARIES
Related Resources:
How to Hear God's Voice!Related Blogs:
How to Hear God’s Voice
Comments
Loneliness
by Anonymous
Thanks Mark. I came across this just by chance, funny I know that's not true, God really spoke to me through this. I feel lonely all the time to the point I feel a waste of time. God was trying to get my attention alright and He did. Thank you for sharing. I know God just used you to save a life. Thank you, I now know what I need to do. Yours truly, a saved soul.
God used Mark's dialog with
by mery
God used Mark's dialog with him, and by his sharing it with us, Mark (a fisher of men) threw out the lifeline and 'caught us, bringing us into fellowship with the LORD. Blessings to you.
hearing God?
by Anonymous
why is it so hard for me to hear God for myself? It seems difficult and hard to hear God like you all do. How do you write down your thoughts? I never hear anything when i ask God a question. Neither does a thought appear in my mind. Can you help me? What am i doing wrong? Am i not still or quiet enough??
How to hear God in a conversation
by Mark Holloway
Good question. There's a whole section in the back of my book The Freedom Diaries -God Speaks Back. Available on this website, by clicking top right of this page. But here's a wee summary. You write down your question, then write the beginning of the answer - e.g. 'God what are you saying to me, just to me this morning? Mark what I'm saying to you is.... (and then write down what comes into your mind). Something will come, sooner or later. As soon as you think it you're likely to think it's absurd, and tell yourself it's just your own thinking. Ignore that and write it down. Then, if you're not sure about it, not sure whether it's God, then ask him. This is a conversation remember. So after writing his answer, you might write. 'I don't know God, that sounds pretty dumb, sounds just like my own voice.' And then write what comes to your mind. Back and forward. This isn't religion, so it won't sound like a church service. It will sound like a conversation between you and someone close. Someone you can argue you with without feeling guilty. Jeremiah, David, Isaiah, Moses and many others all argued with God. He seems happy, he just wants friends. Remember he'd rather hear 'God what's going on here.' Than 'Oh my Lord God, what has thy servant done to deserve this.' Talk to him like you talk to your friends. Write down his answers, no matter how absurd they sound, then question him about the answers, demand that he tell you whether it's him or not. The greek for seek and keep on seeking suggests a worthy translation is 'demand and keep on demanding.' Anyway, try it and let me know how you get on. Post your results as a comment on one of these blogs. MARK H.
Thank you, Mark
by mery
Thank you, Mark, for sharing from the Father. I find so many golden "nuggets" in your dialogs with God. Mary
Add new comment