NOT GOOD TO BE ALONE
One of the worst plagues to strike our planet has been unleashed. The COVID-19 pandemic likely came from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. But, the plan for its deadly work, I believe, was actually designed in the pit of hell.
Consider how it has negatively impacted us physically, economically, politically, mentally, spiritually—and relationally. There is not an area of our world that has not been assaulted by this microbial menace. Satan must be laughing with glee.
Particularly, focus on how it has isolated us from God’s good intention of human interaction. We were created for relationships, and perhaps the worst part of this scourge has been how it has brought us to hiding behind a mask and “socially distancing” from each other. The devil is a divider, and he has a tiny tool doing an immense work—global in scope.
God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” Yet, we are surrendering to the bad of being alone. Family are in nursing homes and hospitals and we cannot visit them. They die apart from the touch of a loving hand and presence of their kin. Funerals are small gatherings at best, and where we once fell into each other’s arms and wept, mingling our tears as we memorialized those taken from us, now we are terrorized at the thought of getting too close with too many people.
The Lord has sent His church to reach people, but who wants a stranger coming to your door?
God has designed the church to be a place where we drop our masks, embrace one another, fellowship together, encourage each other, sing with enthusiasm and live by faith, yet we are increasingly divided in any number of ways.
Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. This novel coronavirus is not a joke. It is real, and is a threat to our health, and for some it will be deadly. If you are immune compromised or are elderly with underlying health issues, a mask may help and you may want to be cautious in a crowd. Those who are healthy, yet work with those who are not, might want to take extra measures so as not to contract the disease and spread it.
Please, do not judge your neighbor, but consider them and support their decision.
I am one of those who has those issues—older with auto-immune disease. I must live with the daily possibility and so I wash my hands, am careful about hand-shaking, and so forth. Yet, there is something more deadly—a malignant cancer of the soul—being alone. God said that it is not good and He has not changed His mind about it.
Without becoming overtly political, there is a move afoot to impose tyrannical lockdowns, where churches are restricted (but not casinos and strip clubs), where families are forbidden to gather for holiday celebrations, and all in the name of public health. Government says, “Let us control you and we will take care of you.” Where is a modern day Patrick Henry to cry out, “Give me liberty or give me death!”
We are sacrificing liberty for imagined security. Maybe we will add a few more years to our life, but we are subtracting life from our years! Is taking a deep breath of crisp, cool mountain air worth the risk? Is the compassionate embrace of a loved one something we dare avoid?
The reality is—we are dying. It is life’s great inevitability. While we are forbidden in Scripture of putting God to the test, one cannot eliminate all risk from life and have any kind of life worth having. Use prudent precautions, but in the end set aside fear and embrace faith. Our days are numbered by a Sovereign God who will take us at His decreed time. If you are ready to meet God, then eternity is a glorious destination. Paul said, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Phil.1:21).
Will we die of loneliness? It is so subtle, so insidious, so gradual, like erosion eating away at the foundation of a house, little by little, until the structure collapses one day. Our family life, our churches, a civil society are eroding by the day. Will we inevitably collapse in anarchy, civil war, totalitarian take over or some combination of it all?
It is not good to be alone.
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