Loneliness and Home Made Bread

www.MarysvilleNaz.org 

I read recently that 2 out of 3 men experience chronic loneliness.  That is a startling number when you consider they are talking about a chronic condition.  I can understand experiencing occasional loneliness but chronic?  That really says something about the lives men lead.  

Before I go further I probably need to be clear that loneliness and being alone is not the same thing.  One can be around a lot of people and be lonely. (Especially men)  One can also be by them-self and not feel lonely at all.  The key difference is the presence of meaningful friendships.  I honestly think that a huge part of the problem is that we have a hard time making strong friendships.  We do the surface thing pretty well but really getting to know someone so that you feel connected to them is much harder.  

For Jodi and me one of our greatest blessings has been the abundance of true friends over the years.  It's kind of amazing really when you consider how often we have moved.  Frankly we are prime candidates for loneliness but just the opposite is true.  We have more close friends than we can keep up with.  We really do have an embarrassment of riches.

Wanna know our secret?  One word, church.  Even before we went into the ministry we were deeply involved in church and in Connection Groups.  The gospel has always pushed us to connect in meaningful ways with other believers.  When we were young it was a connection group of young couples just starting out.  We laughed with and at each other.  We we got a little older we again bonded with people at the same stage of life.  At this stage in life we again find ourselves connected to folks that are doing what we are doing... launching kids into the real world, otherwise known as the empty nest.  

It is the friendships we made living life together that have sustained us over all these years.  In fact it seems to be coming full circle.  I look at the children of all our friends and I realize that our kids are now at the same stage of life that we were when we started our first Connection Group in our church.  Life goes by way to fast but we have been extraordinarily blessed with friends that are like family and you can too.

So let me encourage you to find the time in your crazy schedule to get into a connection group.  We have groups based on learning, Bible Study and sermons.  In addition to you can just spend time with good friends.  But I do have one caution.  Friends take time. 

Truth is you can't microwave friendship.  It is old fashion and can only be made from scratch.  Yes scratch is a lot of work but do you remember what homemade from scratch bread tastes like?  Hot out of the oven, overwhelming smell, soft inside.. then you add homemade jam... Yeah, worth it.  

Is getting connected and making real friends hard work?  Yep.  Does it take time you don't have? Yep.   Is it worth it... without a doubt.  Just like made from scratch bread satisfies in a way that store bought cannot, real friendship satisfies the soul.