Something to Ponder: LONELINESS

If there's one thing to expect when you are away from home & loved ones that is LONELINESS.

Working abroad is not easy as it sounds. There are times that you will experience homesickness and much more when Yuletide season is coming...the " Christmas Blues".

Ever since I moved here in Doha to work I can't help to miss my friends even I have chance to chat with them, I still miss those times that we are personally chatting, laughing & even sometimes crying with one another. Although I have friends here I'm still longing the comfort and companions of my so long life called friends. But I must learn and take first the things that I have on my hand at this moment.

Let me share you what I've got this morning from my mail

Although loneliness is painful, it isn't always a bad place to be for a time. C.S. Lewis said "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

God definitely spoke to us in our loneliness. And I started wondering if perhaps there are times when God allows loneliness into our lives as an invitation to pursue Him as our closest friend. When our friends have left us, or we have left them, God reveals His presence in new ways. Tim Hansel, author of Through the Wilderness of Loneliness writes, "Loneliness is not a time of abandonment...it just feels that way. It's actually a time of encounter at new levels with the only One who can fill that empty place in our hearts."

God longs to fill our hearts with Himself. Yet we often try to fill the desires of our hearts with the things of this world. We also discover those attempts to find replacements for God are fleeting and insubstantial, leaving us even lonelier than before.

As you face a time of loneliness, take this opportunity to look to Jesus as a best friend. Jesus Himself calls us friends in John 15:15, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."

Even though we were designed for community, God has a purpose for loneliness. If we can learn from it, rather than resent it, I believe we'll find a life-long Friend who'll never leave us lonely.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for being my Friend...a friend who will never leave me. Lord, teach me how to make the best out of my loneliness. Amen

Love,

Jenjen