Researchers are warning us that loneliness causes as much health risk as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. An 81-page report from the US Surgeon General cites some alarming statistics:
- Americans spent about 20 minutes a day in person with friends in 2020, down from 60 minutes daily nearly two decades earlier.
- Young people, ages 15 to 24, report a 70% drop in time spent with friends during the same period.
- The number of single households has doubled over the last 60 years.
- Isolation elevates a person’s likelihood for experiencing depression, anxiety and dementia, and increases the risk of premature death by nearly 30%.
- People who use social media for 2 hours or more daily are more than twice as likely to report feeling socially isolated than those who are on such apps for less than 30 minutes a day.
Put Down Your Phone
Social media is a little bit real, and a little bit fake. News is the same. Phone addiction makes you feel like you’re connecting, and you are, but not to reality. When you’re not connecting to reality, then you’re believing a lie.
Sure, the posts and videos are real, but they create an image, an impression that is not fully accurate. Not fully informed, just like we most often don’t fully understand news reported by media. There’s more to the story.
If you’re basing your relationships on anything but accurate truth, then you are living with lots of unhealthy assumptions. Like the prophet Elijah assumed that few, if any, worshiped the Lord God. He isolated himself and became so lonely he wanted to die. “‘I have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life’” (1 Kings 19:4).
Pick Up Your Bible
What information are you consuming most often? Compare the minutes (or hours) you spend on email, social media and zoned into a screen each day to the amount of time you spend consuming God’s Word. Which one is a louder voice in your life?
You live the best version of you and your life when you are tuning into what God says about you. That’s in the Bible.
Amazingly, we can be so lonely when we are surrounded by friends, coworkers, family and media. Why? Because none of these relationships provide perfect truth, perfect mercy, and perfect purpose and direction. God did that for Elijah, when Elijah finally listened (1 Kings 19:11-13).
Prioritize Church
Church can cure loneliness in a way that other in-person groups—like your poker playing buddies, your mom’s morning playgroup, your kid’s sport teams, or your clique at work—cannot. Why?
Because church specializes in the supernatural, divine work of God. Even if you sit and watch your daughter play softball with some other Christian friends, that’s not church.
Church is a group of Christians friends that gathers primarily around the gospel of Jesus Christ. You will find Jesus more at church than anywhere else. Period. Worship. Children’s ministry. Small group Bible study. Blogs like this one. All produced by a group of believers on a mission bigger than themselves or anything in this world.
Elijah only felt lonely, only assumed he was lonely. But God let him know “I reserve 7,000 in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal” (1 Kings 19:18). Then God sent him on a divine mission to help even more people believe.
That’s a strong connection!
PRAYER: God, how can I feel so lonely when I’m so surrounded by people and information? Teach my heart your truth. Give me wisdom from your Spirit to discern what is real and what is not. Connect me to you and church. Amen.
SPIRITUAL NEXT STEP: What is one, small action you can take in each of the three areas (Put down your phone. Pick up your Bible. Prioritize church.) within the next 3 days? Ask a friend to do this with you and check-in with each other.