Winning the battle with loneliness
Loneliness. A loss of social connection. These issues are now often referred to as a global crisis, cutting across layers of demographics and cultures.
It’s widely felt that the battle is a mental one. For this battle to be won, there must be a shift in thought, and here Christian Science offers a fresh, spiritual perspective. Mary Baker Eddy writes in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “Love is the liberator” (p. 225).
Mrs. Eddy was not writing of a person-to-person sense of love but of the ever-present God, who is Love. Understanding the universal, ever-active law of Love can free us from a limited, material sense of life and love. Not only are our lives enriched by feeling loved, but we can also become more aware of ways to express love toward others – all others.
One meaning of the word “companion” is “to keep company” (merriam-webster.com), and we have Christ Jesus’ clear example of keeping close company with God. In a boat, on a mountaintop, or on the seashore he leaned on God, prayed for God’s direction, and let himself be comforted and enfolded by divine Love.
Wherever he was, Love was there. If there was work to be done, God was working with him. If healing needed to happen, he acknowledged God as the ever-present healing power.
Jesus said of this closeness, “I am not alone, because the Father is with me” (John 16:32). In fact, he said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). The same eternal Truth that Jesus exemplified – the Christ – is operating in our consciousness today to awaken us to divine Love’s presence right where we are and, actually, to our reflection of that Love as God’s image, His spiritual creation.
A few years after my husband passed on, I felt I was losing the battle with loneliness, and I took a deep dive into Mrs. Eddy’s writings and what she had to say about Jesus’ oneness with divine Love.
I realized that a closer walk – an hour-by-hour lived connection – with God could lift anyone out of a deep loneliness. It was time for me to insist that neither I nor anyone else is separate from Love. Love was ever present with Jesus and is ever present with each of us.
How can we experience this? I find that waking each morning saying “Hello, God” helps me recognize the reality of Love’s presence. Throughout the day, we can extend our spiritual antennae to be aware of the many ways we are already experiencing God’s goodness. Before turning the light off at night, we can recall the blessings of the day and express gratitude to God for them all, no matter how small. Then we begin to understand that we are not a little mortal over here while God is “out there” somewhere. We are one with God, divine Mind, because we are each His idea. An idea cannot be separated from the Mind that conceives it.
If depressed thoughts try to enter, we can hold tight to a spiritual truth as a child hugs a teddy bear. A hymn can help strengthen conviction and bring comfort. For instance, Hymn 139 in the “Christian Science Hymnal” begins,
I walk with Love along the way,
And O, it is a holy day;
No more I suffer cruel fear,
I feel God’s presence with me here.
(Minny M. H. Ayers, adapt. © CSBD)
Is this just an intellectual exercise? No. It is cultivating our confidence in the presence of divine Love’s tender care.
There is a big difference between thinking about God abstractly and living with God as our divine creator – really feeling that we are His cherished, spiritual offspring, His loved expression. This brings true comfort and sustained joy far beyond being with even the most loving of people, who may come and go in our lives.
This spiritual perspective helped me in my struggle, and the loneliness finally disappeared. New relationships evolved. New ways to love and be loved took shape in my life. It was an individual victory, but one that can be experienced on any scale, including in communities or nations feeling isolated or abandoned by their neighbors.
We can be assured that if we ever find ourselves in a situation where we feel alone, divine Love’s presence is inescapable, right at hand. Love never abandons us. God’s gentle presence inspires us with fresh thoughts that give us the upper hand over loneliness.
Feeling God’s presence in our thoughts and heart is how we can definitively experience the lifting of the gloom of loneliness and the filling of any void with light and love. Love’s tender peace and warmth are not just here for the asking. They are here for the knowing and feeling.
Adapted from an editorial published in the Feb. 3, 2025, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
