Isolation is real., How does it feel?
Try spending some time with a senior citizen a widow or someone that everyone has given up on. It’s like feeling like you are in a packed full elevator.
- Crammed in like sardines
- Waiting for an opening
- Suffocating
- Awaiting release
Elevator Syndrome
- It’s much like you taking an elevator, you know the crowded elevators.
- Being crammed in close quarters with those you’ve never met.
- Trying to keep your distance, like never wanting to touch them.
- No one says a word, except an excuse for them to make their way around you.
- You don’t make eye contact with anyone.
- You look up or down just not around.
- Waiting for the number to pop up on the screen
- How freeing that can be to know that you have arrived
- The discomfort of others is gone.
The Threshold Of Isolation
- Absence of joy
- Interests gone
- Barely consuming necessities to
- Hang on
The Killer Of Isolation
Isolation from me and of us from them.
- Depression
- Paranoia
- Schizophrenia
Reasons For Isolation
Insolation can be intentional and unintentional.
- Work demands
- Anxietities
Mission
People should be our most cherished resource. Just like Jesus was to all.
- He Cares
- He listens
- He Served
- He Reached Out
- He Supported
- He Affirmed and Encouraged
- He stayed in Touch
- He Walked With People
Loners who care only for themselves spit on the common good.
Then Jesus went again to walk alongside the lake. Again a crowd came to him, and he taught them. Strolling along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” He came. Later Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: “What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the riff-raff?” Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit.”
Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor.Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be – and experience – a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned – oh, how it will be returned! – at the resurrection of God’s people.” That triggered a response from one of the guests: “How fortunate the one who gets to eat dinner in God’s kingdom!” Jesus followed up. “Yes. For there was once a man who threw a great dinner party and invited many. When it was time for dinner, he sent out his servant to the invited guests, saying, ‘Come on in; the food’s on the table.’ “Then they all began to beg off, one after another making excuses. The first said, ‘I bought a piece of property and need to look it over. Send my regrets.’ “Another said, ‘I just bought five teams of oxen, and I really need to check them out. Send my regrets.’ “And yet another said, ‘I just got married and need to get home to my wife.’ “The servant went back and told the master what had happened. He was outraged and told the servant, ‘Quickly, get out into the city streets and alleys. Collect all who look like they need a square meal, all the misfits and homeless and wretched you can lay your hands on, and bring them here.’ “The servant reported back, ‘Master, I did what you commanded – and there’s still room.’ “The master said, ‘Then go to the country roads. Whoever you find, drag them in. I want my house full!
They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe – all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.
During this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers by leaps and bounds, hard feelings developed among the Greek-speaking believers – “Hellenists” – toward the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food lines. So the Twelve called a meeting of the disciples. They said, “It wouldn’t be right for us to abandon our responsibilities for preaching and teaching the Word of God to help with the care of the poor. So, friends, choose seven men from among you whom everyone trusts, men full of the Holy Spirit and good sense, and we’ll assign them this task. Meanwhile, we’ll stick to our assigned tasks of prayer and speaking God’s Word.”
Let us celebrate, let us rejoice, let us give him the glory! The Marriage of the Lamb has come; his Wife has made herself ready. She was given a bridal gown of bright and shining linen. The linen is the righteousness of the saints. The Angel said to me, “Write this: ‘Blessed are those invited to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.'” He added, “These are the true words of God!”
I’m either your hero or your enemy today, depending on how you handled this bit of information.
Our Mission To Help With Isolation
Re-Establish
- Family Fun
- Meaningful Mealtimes
- Sitting and Reminiscing
- Get Involved somehow, some way
The Good Ole’ Days
Look back on the holidays where everyone gathered together before isolation.
Allow those times to weave their way back into the fabric of your mind.
It’s a time where we reflect.
Study the scene created by another who cared deeply enough about another.
Thoughtfully, silently, sit alone at a length of time without interruptions of your routine tasks.
Take inthe time to stop, listen and think.
What thoughts emerge, as your thoughts drift off and you linger in these memorable meaningful times? Was it music playing, people’s voices, noises of laughter, odors radiating from the oven, games being played sitting around a table, find what mattered to you most and provide it for another.
“But blessed is the man who trusts me, God, the woman who sticks with God. They’re like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers – Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, Serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season.
I eat my fill of prime rib and gravy; I smack my lips. It’s time to shout praises! If I’m sleepless at midnight, I spend the hours in grateful reflection.
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care – then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death – and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth – even those long ago dead and buried – will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Give sacrificially today to someone else, but don’t tell anyone what you did.
