Article September 21, 1987 Issue

You are not alone

Loneliness, unfortunately, is not a rare feeling. Maybe you live alone and aren't happy about it. Or perhaps you've felt an unspoken concern about being alone in the future. Here are some answers.

Barbara R. Banks

For many years I had an exceptionally close and loving companionship with my mother, and when she passed on, for the first time in my life I was faced with the prospect of living alone. More than once I had heard people make remarks such as "It's hard to have to learn to live alone." It was certainly something that previously I had felt I could never do! But now, here I was having to face up to this challenge. And then one day it came to me quite clearly: we don't have to learn to live alone. We do have to learn to live more consciously, more closely, with God, our tender, caring Father-Mother.

Christ Jesus said, "I am not alone, because the Father is with me."^{John 16:32.} And in another place, "I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me."^{John 8:16.} This is also spiritually true for each one of us. The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, and that has been a beacon light to mankind ever since, begins with the words "our Father." Not "my Father" or "your Father," but our Father. The "good news" is that we are all God's sons and daughters, made in His own image, spiritual, not material.

But just believing this is not enough. We have to prove it by our actions. We need to look at Jesus' expression of sonship, his consecration and faithfulness to good, his unselfed service to others, his healing works. He shows us the way to live as children of God. Seeking more and more to follow the Christ example, turning to God for the ability to do so, we become increasingly conscious of living close to our Father.

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