Developing Needed Friendships
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles, uncategorizedIn our prison system, the most dangerous inmates endure solitary confinement in small concrete cells. They have virtually no contact with the outside world. One inmate commented that the most difficult part of such isolation was “not being able to see somebody face to face — to communicate, to touch, to hug, to feel loved, to feel human.” The implication of the inmate’s words is that of loneliness — certainly not the way man was designed to live.
After God created man, He acknowledged Adam’s loneliness and said:
“It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Genesis 2:18).
In essence, God was saying that the man needed another person with whom he could be fully human. Although the immediate setting is companionship, in the larger context, God is telling us that being fully human means enjoying relationship with other human beings.
No matter the cause of our loneliness — sin, loss, shame, sickness, or depression. God says this is “not good.” He created us to be in close relationship with others (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) and with Him (Revelation 21:3; cf. 2 Corinthians 6:16).
Today, let’s reach out to other folks and develop needed friendships — for our sake and theirs.