Loneliness and the Cross

I know more people who face loneliness on a daily basis than I've ever known. Chronic loneliness presents many challenges. I remind such people that there are also benefits to loneliness, when it is harnessed, in terms of personal industry and creative output. For the most part, though, the burden seems often to outweigh the blessings. Here's where a good, long gaze at the Cross of Christ can be edifying and encouraging. The Cross of Christ is the home and resting place for all human loneliness. It is the loneliest place and point in history. Lonely Christians, unlike other lonely people, have an incredible advantage in the Cross besides eternal salvation. I know this last sentence seems like a crazy one! Once saved, who cares about the rest? Well, God for one. God has provided, in the Cross of His One and Only Son, an inexhaustible source of fresh hope and energy for those otherwise debilitated by loneliness. The lonely Christian cannot escape or refuse the fellowship of a Christ whose entire Kingdom is built on moments one Friday of excruciating pain and abandonment. In other words, Jesus Christ is the Lord of the lonely. He owns your loneliness. He is the master of it. Faith in Him changes the pain of it. Now, stay on this road called Christ and see where He leads you! Someday soon you'll forget the clouds for the light. In Christ, loneliness is a finite season. It ends. A new day begins.