Finding God in Our Feelings: Facing Loneliness

In this message in our series Finding God in Our Feelings, we are looking at the feeling of loneliness. Even before the pandemic, loneliness had become a health crisis. In 2018, the U.K. elected the country's first Minister of Loneliness. The U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy stated that the U.S. was experiencing an epidemic of loneliness in our social interactions, since "efficiency and convenient relationships" that are much less satisfying have edged out time -consuming real relationships. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2018 concluded that one in five Americans said they always or often feel lonely or socially isolated. This epidemic of loneliness impacts all ages. We may think about people over 60 and living alone; a Pew Research Study reported 43% of this population reported feeling lonely before COVID. Another survey shows that those aged 18-22 had the highest loneliness scores. People are more connected through social media and computers, yet loneliness continues to rise. Among digitally connected teens and young adults, loneliness nearly doubled between 2012 and 2018 with the explosion in social media use. Loneliness impacts not only our feelings and emotions, but also our mental and physical health. Loneliness has been found to increase the risk of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, heart disease, cancer, stroke, obesity, hypertension, dementia, and premature death from weakening our immune system. We can be impacted by the risk associated with loneliness even if we are not aware that our feeling is actual loneliness. Loneliness is not specific to age, gender, ethnicity, geography, or century; loneliness is all around us, and it is not new. It is not good for humanity to be alone. Responding to loneliness begins with recognizing the feelings of loneliness and responding to loneliness in us and around us by finding God in our feelings of loneliness.