Articles (Continued) May 18, 2015 Issue

Overcoming loneliness

Excerpted from Radio Program No. 119, part of the radio series The Bible Speaks to You,
reprinted from the July 18, 1964, Sentinel.

This radio series was published in the Christian Science Sentinel without the names of the interviewers and speakers.

Interviewer: Loneliness is a familiar problem. In his book, Love and Conflict, Gibson Winter spoke of the excessive loneliness created by industrial society. He said: “It is one thing to be alone in order to be quiet and recollect oneself. This is creative aloneness.… On the other hand, there is a kind of loneliness which comes from being isolated.… It is the estrangement of the isolated person who moves anonymously in the midst of crowds” (© 1958, by Gibson Winter, Doubleday and Company, Incorporated, New York, NY).

What about this? What about the separation people feel from family and friends?

Speaker: Well, loneliness is not just a matter of loss of personal contact with friends or loved ones. It is caused by a feeling of separation that runs much deeper than that. Loneliness can be attributed to the feeling that man is a mortal, that he is virtually separated from God and His purpose for man. When an individual feels lonely or homesick, what he really longs for actually has its source in God. I am speaking of such qualities as happiness and satisfaction, security and contentment. They come from God, and we experience them in our everyday living as the evidence of His presence and goodness. Speaking of God’s goodness, the Psalmist wrote (Psalms 107:9), “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”

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