Let's just be real; it has been a lonely time for me. But I benefit from reading Elisabeth Elliot's sobering and re-orienting words any time. This particular book seems to focus more on issues related to loneliness. I like her idea of offering loneliness to God.
"It is a very different line than I offer [than joining a health club, etc], more practical, more "useful" in the long run than any diversion, one that has been for me not only eminently workable wherever I was, whatever the cause, but fundamentally transforming. It is not a trick or a program or a method of getting rid of loneliness altogether. I do not believe there is such a thing. It does not cost money, require skill, or depend upon the cooperation of others. It is this simple matter of seeing loneliness as a gift-- to be received, and then to be offered back to God for His use. We might say it is a coin, exchangeable for something of everlasting value.
"When a coin is spent it's gone. I have often found that loneliness given to God disappears. I cannot find it anywhere. My heart is light. My work is a joy. I am healed. and all unbeknownst to me, there has been, in addition to my own healing, an exchange I did not dream of: Someone else's load has been lightened.
"But then it comes again, in a different way, perhaps, but loneliness all the same-- the reminder that I was made for god, my heart will never rest anywhere else, and nothing the world can offer will satisfy.
"Can I promise that your loneliness will disappear at once? No. It does not always happen so. I cannot offer a want which when waved in the proper way will make your troubles vanish. I cannot say, "This is what you can do about it," but I can say, "This is what you can do with it-- right now." Receive it willingly from God. Offer it thankfully back to God.
"You will still be alone, but you will not be lonely. You will find solace in solitude, and your oblation brings you one step nearer to spiritual maturity." (147-148)
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