Into Solitary Places

 

O

ne of the great ironies of today’s society is that with more and more things for people to do, the more alone they feel.  100 plus channels on the television, innumerable movies on DVD, VHS, or on demand, millions of sites on the Internet, e-mail accounts, PDA’s, cell phones and pagers, there is just no end to the number of ways we can be contacted.  Yet, none of these devices or conveniences provides the deep and personal relationship we as humans so desperately desire. 

 

On the weekends, people run errands, meet friends, go shopping, travel, or a host of other things to avoid spending time alone.  Although we as a society say we want more “alone time,” the manner in which we live our lives doesn’t bear this out.  Instead, it seems we do everything possible to avoid being alone and yet we are alone because nothing on the surface ever penetrates and fills the void within. 

 

In Luke’s gospel we encounter a man who is the very embodiment of loneliness.  In Luke 8:29, we read this description of him, “For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.”  Do you feel this man’s loneliness?  He was lonely on just about every front imaginable.  He was kept in chains, under guard which, I believe, speaks to his isolation from society.  His family may also have abandoned him, and it is most certain that few, if any, friends claimed him as their own. 

 

Moreover, the Scriptures tell us that he was spiritually alone as well.  From the passage we know the man had a demon which would also make him a spiritual outcast and if that weren’t enough, the demon contented itself in driving this man into solitary, or lonely, places.  Where these places were, we do not know.  I wonder, sometimes, if they could have been mentally and emotionally arid places, devoid of all emotion, all sense, and all reason.  Wherever they were, it is certain this man felt completely and utterly cut off—cut off from his God and cut off from his society, essentially adrift on life’s sea. 

 

But that is when Jesus steps in.  He is concerned about this man and commands the demon to leave him. The demon’s name was Legion for there were many of them and the after leaving him, the man returns to his right mind (verses 35-36).  There is, I believe a great lesson for us to learn here.  The fact that this man was possessed and disenfranchised from society was no obstacle for Jesus.  Our Lord’s concern was for the man, not for his appearance, his situation, his circumstances, or his family history.  It didn’t matter what he had done or hadn’t done.  All that mattered to Jesus was this man’s need; and he met it. 

 

No matter how alone we may feel, no matter what the circumstances of our lives, no matter how impossible we feel or believe life to be, we are never beyond the reach of our God.  In the most desperate of situations, when all hope seems to be fleeting, even in the most remote recesses of our minds, we can call on God for help!  For those who have believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, as God’s only Son, and the one who came and died for the forgiveness of their sins, God stands ready to help in life’s most trying situations.  For those who don’t yet know Jesus as Savior, they can accept Him and find hope, strength, and encouragement to face all of life’s challenging situations.   

 

Perhaps you are lonely today or know someone who is.  In all the solitary places of life there is hope, and that hope is in Jesus Christ.  Do you know him today?  Would you like to?  To learn more about becoming a Christian visit www.needhim.org.