Loneliness sneaks up on you.
I was on a mission trip when I finally gave the feeling a name. As I sat there watching my college students singing a silly song and making up hand motions to go with it, it finally hit me: I was lonely.
It’s hard sometimes as a ministry wife finding friends in new places. You move into a church where everyone has their network of relationships already established. It takes a while to figure out where the landmines are, who’s related to who, and the unspoken rules of the community. That’s true for every new move, but when you add to it all the dynamics of being a pastor’s wife in a small town–well, it gets even more complicated.
Friendship can be tricky. But God knows our needs.
It hadn’t really occurred to me to pray for a friend before that evening sitting there on the dormitory floor. But when I did, God supplied my need. He sent a heart friend. A soul sister and “kindred spirit.” She was God’s gift to me at a time I desperately needed a friend.
There’s something about feeling lonely that sometimes makes you hide, as if it were somehow shameful to feel alone. Yet like Adam in the garden, loneliness is a reminder that we were never intended to go it alone. God intends for us to live in community, to spur one another on to growth. Loneliness is a signal that we are missing out on the life God wants us to live: a life of sharing and giving with the family of God. Let loneliness drive you to God, and open your life to those God wants you to share it with. God knows our needs. He has an answer for lonely.
This post is part of the Five Minute Friday linkup hosted by Lisa-Jo Baker over at her blog. She posts a prompt and this crazy group of bloggers writes for five minutes on whatever comes to mind. No editing. No second guessing. Just “finger-painting with words.” Click on over her blog to check it out and play along.
3 comments
Leigh! I am so glad God provided that heart sister 🙂 I know about struggling with those unspoken community rules and can only imagine how much more difficult it is right in the thick of ministry life (and maybe the unspoken expectations others might have of you because of it?) and moves and whatnot… asking God to meet your needs in the middle of any loneliness you feel today!
P.S. the colors on your blog are so serene… random I know, haha, but I love it in here!
Thanks so much for dropping by! Glad you like the colors–I wanted something calming.
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