by Jerry Senn
The following statement on the spiritual impact of being alone with God is insightful and helpful. Those who have faced this dilemma will also find it affirming and powerfully true.
“The pain of loneliness is one way in which He wants to get our attention. We may be earnestly desiring to be obedient and holy. But we may be missing the fact that it is here, where we happen to be at this moment and not in another place or another time, that we may learn to love Him. Here in a place where it seems He is not at work, where He seems obscure or frightening, where He is not doing what we expected Him to do, where He is most absent. Here and nowhere else is the appointed place. If faith does not go to work here, it will not work at all.”
— Elizabeth Elliott
Hearing those words, this song comes immediately to mind:
“Once I stood in the night with my head bowed low,
In the darkness as sad as could be;
And my heart felt alone and I cried. ‘O Lord,
Don’t hide your face from me.
Like a king I may live in a palace so tall,
With great riches to call my own;
But I don’t know a thing in this whole wide world
That’s worse than being alone.
Hold my hand all the way,
Every hour of the day,
From here to the great unknown.
Take my hand; Let me stand
Where no one stands alone.”
— Mosie Lister (w 1955)