Reaching a Lonely and Confused World

Two stories from the New York Times struck me this week. Arthur Brooks opened his story on Friday with the words, “America is suffering from an epidemic of loneliness” (here). Then sex change candidate Andrea Long Chu published the article yesterday entitled “My new [female body part] will not make me happy and it should not have to” (here). Both articles articulate what we have known for some time now. We live in a sad, lonely, confused world in which many people have given up the idea of even being happy. They have settled for just having the illusion of controlling of their pain and suffering.

So much for “the most wonderful season of all.”

Brooks’s seems to think the polarized and violent political environment is being fueled by an epidemic of loneliness. He cites a study identifying the changing nature of the work environment moving from long term employers to the present day short term temp environment. Here is what he said we are missing.

Too many Americans don’t have a place they think of as home — a “thick” community in which people know and look out for one another and invest in relationships that are not transient. To adopt a phrase coined in Sports Illustrated, one might say we increasingly lack that “hometown gym on a Friday night feeling.”

In Andrea Long’s article, he/she says the that the feeling of dysphoria is worse since the gender change process started, depression has deepened, and thoughts of suicide have increased. And yet he/she still wants the surgery asserting that everyone’s “wants” should be granted, no matter how self-destructive they might be. The final words of the article are deeply depressing.

But I also believe that surgery’s only prerequisite should be a simple demonstration of want. Beyond this, no amount of pain, anticipated or continuing, justifies its withholding.

Nothing, not even surgery, will grant me the mute simplicity of having always been a woman. I will live with this, or I won’t. That’s fine. The negative passions — grief, self-loathing, shame, regret — are as much a human right as universal health care, or food. There are no good outcomes in transition.

This is the world we are called to reach. It is a world where people have no idea who they are anymore. They cannot even come to a sense of their own gender. We have Christ,  We have the answers to these questions. We are sinners, lost and undone without Jesus Christ. Yet, in Jesus Christ we are the wonderful creations of a loving God. We are redeemed by the death of Jesus Christ. We are beloved children of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. We are joyfully destined for an eternity in heaven. Our God has the answers for this confused world and it is our obligation to share this message in love.

This world is a lonely place where people cannot seem to understand where they belong.  We have the church. As believers in Jesus Christ we are baptized into the body of Christ and we now have the privilege of being part of a local church body. The local church is a true community where people of all ages live mutual support, accountability and true love. The local church is the answer to the loneliness of the world in which we exist.

Using an entertainment model to reach this world is a huge miscalculation. We cannot “out entertain” the world around us. Disney and Hollywood will always be able to entertain better than we can. What we can offer is what our world really needs anyway. We can offer people a relationship with God and a closer relationship to God’s people. It’s our simple, profound, effective message. Let’s reach out to the lonely and confused around us in this Christmas season. We have the good news.