Community - Duh.

I was reading an article for one of my classes this morning when I ran across this quote from Pascal:

"All the miseries of mankind come from one thing, not knowing how to remain alone." -Pascal

How true is that? The times when we are most depressed, most in pain, when our hearts are the most broken, is when we are alone. The vast majority of us (I'd say approximately 99.999%) cannot handle being alone. Big news, yea? Well guess what; we are not supposed to know how to be alone. We have been created to be in community with one another.

Think about it. God did not create Adam and say, "Hey, you sure do look good and happy all by your lonesome." God did not tell Noah to get on the ark with the animals all by himself. Moses had Aaron to go with him to talk to Pharaoh about letting his people go. Ruth didn't let Naomi wander alone. Jesus wandered the land with a clump of 12 of his best friends. God doesn't even want to be alone - He created us (and on top of that He is the Trinity, the Three in One)! We were not created to be alone. We were created for kinship, for family and friends.

I do think Pascal is one the right track, though. Being alone is not a fun thing to be. One thing I think gets us into this little lonely dilemmas is the fact that we do not see God as our friend who sits beside us. Does that sentence make sense? Many of us trust and know that God is there, that He hears us and sees us, that He lays us on the hearts of others when we need to be remembered and provided for. But many of us don't connect to God the way He desires us to - or the way we desire to connect with Him. God longs for our hearts to be connected to His, just as our hearts connect with our best friends. We long to have that connection, that strong, unchanging, unconditional connection that provides comfort and love, strength and support. How do we get there? I have no idea. Maybe the same way we connect with our neighbor; by taking the time to be together.

The miseries of mankind come from us not knowing how to be by ourselves. Duh.