Lonely in His Presence

 

Have you ever felt a profound feeling of loneliness? Have you ever felt that in the midst of abundance? I am sure many of you have. 

I have been through that twice. The 1^st time was shortly after my conversion; the feeling lasted for a while and left without me knowing what had happened. The 2^nd time was a few years ago. Humanly speaking, my communion with the Lord was almost perfect, I have no worry at all, –family, work or money - but I felt terribly lonely. 

I was deeply disturbed for I had been used to thinking – maybe like you – that it was impossible to feel lonely in God’s presence. I had learned that when everything goes wrong and the whole world abandons you, God would still be there and would never forsake you. I had learned that the presence of the One that the whole universe cannot contain was enough to fill any void. Everything was not going wrong, nobody had abandoned me, God was there; yet, I was feeling lonely and I was feeling guilty to feel that way. 

I once heard someone speak of the loneliness of heights. I can’t remember who it was nor what the context was, but who knows? Maybe that’s what was happening to me… In any case, as I was trying to understand what was going on, Genesis 2:18 came to my mind: “Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 

I had always read and understood this verse in the context of marriage but all of a sudden I could see something new. Indeed, it is God who said: ‘‘It is not good that the man should be alone…’’ acknowledging the fact that the man Adam, was alone. In other words, despite the fact that Adam had not yet known the pangs of the fall, even though he had not yet been cast away from the garden and although he was living in God’s presence day and night, Adam was alone! He was alone, he was lonely and from God’s own mouth, this was not good! 

Indeed, the Bible declares: “…woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”

Realizing this appeased me. Even if there are usually many explanations to loneliness, I could stop feeling guilty because it was possible without being abnormal, to be ‘surrounded by God’ and still feel lonely. 

Let us finally note that He who had said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” was not the One who could fill that void. He was not the One who could have been called, “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” A wonderful illustration of the fact that even though we are made in His image and likeness, we are also so different from Him that Adam was not mistaken. Thus, they are very wrong, those who say: ‘‘A dog makes dogs, a cat makes cats and God makes gods’’ or, “we are a photocopy of God” implying a perfect resemblance in aspect or in nature between God and Man. Adam never made that error. Had he made it, men would have been taking God as their legitimate wife since then…

 

Be richly blessed!