Just a few words today about being desolate

Just a few words today about being desolate. First of all it isn't good. To be 'desolate' means to "be solitary, left alone, or forsaken." There is only one scripture in the Bible that hints at anything good coming from being desolate. That would be 1 Timothy 5:5, which defines a true widow as someone who is "desolate and continues in prayers and supplications night and day." While it is a good thing to be constant in prayer, it should be duly noted that much of that chapter is dedicated to how a congregation should support and help true widows. The last time I checked nobody really aspired to be a widow or widower. So even this passage tells us that we're talking about someone who is in a disadvantaged position and needs special care, which would not be the preferred situation of anyone. It should also be understood that being desolate is not just about being widowed or unmarried. There are friends, family, and brethren that can take up the slack for someone who is unmarried. Being desolate simply means that someone is alone and it is not by their choice. In the beginning God created Adam and then decided that it wasn't good for him to be alone, meaning without someone of his own kind (Gen. 2:18). You know the rest of that story. The point is that God is good, and if he says it is NOT a good thing to be alone, then it isn't good. Solomon in his large endowment of godly wisdom said the same thing: "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken" (Eccl. 4:9-12). That's just good sense, and it is evident that anyone would rather be in that position than to be desolate. Jesus applied that same wisdom when he sent the apostles out to preach the Gospel and heal the sick: "And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits" (Mk. 6:7). Later he anointed seventy more men and sent them two at a time as well (Lk. 10:1). It's true that there are people who actually want to be alone, but that isn't the natural way to feel about the way we want our lives to be. If the story be told in these cases, we would find that someone who prefers to be desolate has suffered some kind of hurt that has never been healed; and they are misguidedly doing the only thing that they know to do to 'protect themselves.'

I should note here that I am NOT saying that it is unnatural for someone to prefer being single in terms of marital status, but rather just totally alone, period.There are simply too many scriptures to bother referencing that show us that it is a really good thing and pleasing to God for us to to all that we can to see that the desolate in our sphere of living do not remain so. No doubt we've all been guilty of neglecting someone who is desolate, and life can be very busy and time consuming. May God help us all to do better in this respect. More often than not it is the elderly who are desolate, but by no means is this always the case. Sometimes people who are not elderly, and in fact may appear to be someone who you wouldn't think to be desolate, are far more alone than it may look like. One would not think that David, the ancient king of Israel, would be one to be desolate. Yet the words of this Psalm appear to have been written when he was young and probably fleeing from Saul: "Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted" (Psm. 25:16). Even Jesus, who had the closest relationship with the Father in the history of the world, and was surrounded by people most of the time; had some feeling of desolation at times, as the prophecy of the Psalms shows us: "Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none" (Psm. 69:20). The moral of the story is that we should be in tune with the Spirit of God's love, and be aware of the loneliness that plagues many people who are being overlooked. I've said it often, and I'll say it often yet, that the pinnacle of human relationship is to truly care about the needs of others, and to feel truly cared for by others. It really just doesn't get any better than that, and beside that it is the heart and soul of our calling as children of God to see to it that these things are fulfilled in our lives while we have the time to fulfill them (Mat. 7:12; Gal. 5:14; Gal. 6:2). Amen.