Dangerous Isolation
1 “It is not good for the man to be alone” Genesis 2:18
Alone – If you could unzip the psychological skin that surrounds your soul, what would be revealed? Would you find an inner harmony of community? Would you discover a multitude of healthy relationships between God, others and yourself? Or would you expose something terrifying – an emptiness where you sit alone, separated from human and divine involvement? On the first day of a new year, we might prefer not to engage in any serious introspection. We might prefer to relax, celebrate or vegetate. But tomorrow the world will wake up with its demanding schedules and exhausting intensity. We will be thrust back into the machinery of capitalist isolation where every one seeks his advantage. So, today is the perfect time to ask: Are you alone?
The Hebrew word translated “alone” is badh, an accidental pun in English. Being alone is badh. God recognized that being alone was not good. This is quite an amazing statement since our original parents had the fellowship of God Himself. Nevertheless, the Man needed someone else to bring about the community and harmony that God intended in our created state. He needed an ‘ezer, a helpmate who would provide protection against isolation. Do you have someone in your life who overcomes your isolation?
The Hebrew point of view is very different than our Greek inheritance. In the Greek world, all of us are essentially alone. The Greek ideal is individual autonomy. Man is the measure of all things, including his own worth. In the Greek world, the more I show myself capable of independence, the more I am valued and emulated. Our cultural heroes are the supermen, the ones who don’t need anyone else to accomplish great feats. We worship the self-made man.
But the Hebrews knew better. In the desert, independence meant death. Isolation, from God and from others, was a terrifying, dangerous and ultimate fatal existence. It is no accident that the Hebrew Scriptures often associated this word with the waste places, the desert and destitution. In the Hebrew world, men and women survive only because they are connected. When I am alone, it is always dangerous. God’s answer to the unnatural danger of isolation is the creation of human community. My weakness is overcome in relationship with another, not in brute force individualism.
Who is connected to you? Who knows your unzipped soul? Who brings you out of the desert of isolation?
Skip,
Not that every one of your articles isn’t a good word, but this one is especially good. Perhaps I’m biased (isn’t everyone?) but this challenge lines up so closely with the focus of my fledgling ministry, Encouragement for End Times Endurance. I know the message is not likely to please the crowds but it is one that will make an eternal difference to the few who have ears to hear.
Thanks for encouraging me. God bless,
Les
Skip: Once again you have clearly and eloquently stated what I have tried to say for years but not nearly as well. I have often felt the need to defend my various struggles to well meaning but misinformed friends and frankly, it tires me. I plan to send a link to this post to many who believe I am the only person in the world who thinks about affliction the way that I do. People would rather hear the story of how I was healed from a wheelchair in 1989 than what the Lord is doing in my life today. But I refuse to accommodate their flesh. I only hope and pray they might remember my words someday when going through “the fire” so they will look to our Sovereign Lord for strength and endurance.
Thank you Brother – what a great encouragement you are to me and many, many others.
Kathleen
Actually, before moving to Clermont, I was part of a congregation that sent out others to start new congregations regularly. I was so blessed to be part of that sharing. I am blessed to be in a study group on Tuesday nights that showed me I should be keeping the Sabboth on Saturday, and I have been blessed to find such a fellowship. And yes, I have even participated in a fellowship that lifts up enemies and visits prisoners.
I believe I should expect peace and joy just as the Apostles did in prison when they could sing in spite of what went on around them. Am I tempted to have a pity party. Sure. Is that the affliction? I believe that I should be able to lie down in peace and sleep just as David did when there is war all around me. I suppose that test will be coming soon enough in the real sense of war, but there is a war for my soul which I battle every day. Is that the affliction? But I have hope, and faith in the Word of YHWH that renews my strengh every day. I believe I should have the money to be able to give to others and not “squander” it on ourselves, as the winner of the power ball lottery said. It was refreshing to hear him recognize that others had sown into his life and that of his family, and that he will share his blessing (if you dare to call a lottery a blessing). Yes, we see selfishness and greed all around us, but sometimes it is what are you looking for.
We have such a misunderstanding of the riches that we do have already for we carry in this ‘vessel’ something much more precious than gold, but do we share that treasure with the poor,
for the some of the monitarly poor are truly richer than the Bill Gates and Oprah Winfry’s of this world. So let us not squander this precious treasure by keeping it buried in ‘earth’ .
Thanks again Skip and all of our other travelers of the Way that share.
Truly I am blessed without measure,
Jeffrey Curtis
This question…”How eternally focused are you? Is the one that I want answered in the next steps of my life as I seek to serve God through my labor and prayer. Oh, that the Christian community would think eternally. I want to share this with everyone I know! Love in Christ.
Well stated. Thank you!
Thanks, Skip, for yet another deep look at this world versus God’s kingdom. I remember when some thought that affliction in a person’s life indicated they were walking in sin. Thanks for shooting holes in that theory! I simply continue to “count it all joy” as I walk the path of pursuing God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I pray that He continues to expose the darkness in me so that I can walk in the light of His love.
Skip, this was very timely. Funny how I can be contemplating something on my way to work and come here and have it all spelled out. God is truly amazing.
Speaking of coincidences, Milly Sarna (wife of Nahum Sarna, the Bible scholar who was mentioned in Survival Instinct this morning) made me think of the following poem:
maggie and milly and molly and may
By e.e. cummings
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles, and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles; and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
Skip, another excellent post.
One of our problems is that Christians are being taught only to pray, not to engage the culture and to respect authority unless it is a direct contradiction of God’s commandments. A well known minister is currently preaching a series on respecting authority and how it is wrong to protest, etc.
My question is, how is it Biblical to support a government that supports abortion on demand and is doing everything in its power to use taxpayer (my) dollars to fund that? How is is Biblical to support corrupt organizations like Acorn, who is already getting taxpayer funds? How is it Biblical to support the establishment of Hate-Crime laws that go directly against God’s laws?
Grace and Peace.
When you find the answer to this one, please let us all know because it troubles me to have my taxes taken against my will to do things I do not believe in.
It isn’t biblical! But we live here so we render unto Caesar, with protest. There are two ways to attack this problem. The first is to actively oppose a government that demands you tacitly endorse programs that are contrary to God’s character. So, you vote against them. You write letters. You protest peacefully. You do all you can to shine a light on the hypocrisy and immorality.
Second, you could take a more radical, but still biblical, approach. You could simply refuse to pay for it – and be willing to accept the consequences that the government can apply. This is what Jesus did. He refused to alter His mission to fit the culture but He was willing to accept what the governing bodies could do.
Thank you Skip. That was the answer I expected and hoped for.
Most the of time, the first option is the one to use, but sadly the church is largely silent where this is concerned. The government has succeeded in silencing the churches and other non-profit organizations by threatening to revoke their tax-exempt status if they speak out on subjects the government considers off-limits.
By the way, in a real sense, we, the people, are Caesar because this is a republic. The government is supposed to answer to us, not the other way around. It is time that the people quit being quiet and did the things you mentioned “you vote against them. You write letters. You protest peacefully. You do all you can to shine a light on the hypocrisy and immorality.”
We are supposed to be salt and light to this lost and dying world. It is time we acted like Christ expects us to.
I wonder what would happen if we all refused to pay our federal taxes until the money was spent on what we the people agreed on. It sure seems like taxation without representation to me. Tea anyone?
Yolanda, that is a good suggestion, but as usual, we would not have enough people with the guts to stand up to unrighteousness!
If we Christians had just voted our convictions instead of our feelings, things might be different, but I have a feeling that God is showing us the consequences of our collective actions, much like He did to Ancient Israel when they decided they wanted kings, instead of God’s direct rule.
By the way, I have been drinking tea now for over a month! LOL
Grace and Peace, Jay