God is the Answer because without Him there is no Hope
By Larry Peterson
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted
is the most terrible poverty.”
St. Teresa of Calcutta
is the most terrible poverty.”
St. Teresa of Calcutta
This will be the third
Thanksgiving since my wife passed away, and when you become widowed, there is
an inescapable loneliness factor that enters your life. But I have learned that
loneliness has no boundaries. It reaches out for
everyone and captures many of the unsuspecting, including those who are
seemingly happy, contented, and successful, dragging them into a world of
hidden misery and often depression.
However,
many who have experienced loss manage to bounce back and find contentment,
peace, and even love again. Others cannot—why is that? The common denominator
seems to be that those people who have God in their lives were never alone at
all. Those who do not—remain alone. The first consequence of rejecting God is
the loss of Hope. They have
allowed Hope to be erased from their spirit.
The
results of losing Hope are devastating. In fact, the loneliness factor
in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. Here are a few
statistics that show how losing Hope
has affected our nation. Loss of Hope leads to despair, and the ones
affected most by this loss are the Generation Z people, those who are in the 18
to 22-year-old range. I have grandchildren older than that. The entire concept
of these young people, fresh out from adolescence and beginning adulthood,
having lost Hope is so sad. How
can this be?
Cigna referenced
a “Loneliness Index,” and it shows that
loneliness has become rampant in the
United States. This worldwide health service company used the UCLA
Loneliness Scale (yes, they have a loneliness scale), which is
a 20 item questionnaire that was designed to determine a person’s social
isolation and their subjective feelings. This
evaluator is used frequently to
track and measure loneliness. Some of the results were astonishing. This is from their report of May 1, 2018:
· 47 percent of Americans sometimes or
always feel alone
· 27 percent of
Americans feel no one understands them
· 40 percent feel
that their relationships have no meaning
and feel isolated
· 20 percent feel they feel close to no one
and have no one to talk to
· AMAZINGLY---the Generation Z people (18 to
22) are the loneliest generation. How heartbreaking is that?
·
Social Media users have a 43.5 percent
loneliness factor, which was comparable to the 41.7 percent for those who do
not use social media. Isn’t it interesting that
nowhere is the name of God mentioned in
these findings? And nowhere is the importance of the traditional
family considered. The numbers are mind-boggling. We are a nation of almost 330
million people. If 47% say they feel “alone” that is nearly half the country. We
only have to go back 25 years to the early “90s to see the rapid decline in the
absence of Hope.
Since then, there has
been a 58% decline in club meetings, a 43% drop in family dinners, and children
have their playtime regulated, depriving them of natural social development.
People use their phones to message each other, apply for jobs, get interviewed,
quit jobs, break up with their boyfriends or girlfriends, file divorce papers,
and do all sorts of interactions without having to go face to face with a
person, never saying one word.
Getting back to God and
family would be akin to putting the lynchpin back into the hub of life. Then, people, kids included, might be taught that
they can turn to Jesus and never be alone. They might be taught to think of His words from Matthew 28:20 And
behold, I am with you always, until the end of this age.
We must count our
blessings on Thanksgiving, especially knowing that more than half of all
Americans still believe in and honor God in their lives and that we have the
freedom to do it. This Thanksgiving, millions upon millions of us will pray
together thanking God for all we have. We should also pray for all those who do
not have Hope in their lives. We know it can always be reignited and
prayer can be the kindling used to fire up the Hope lying dormant in so
many. God is just waiting to be asked to light the match.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Copyright©LarryPeterson 2019
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