This time of year is one where people show friendship, often in the giving of gifts. The first Christmas was an act of the deepest friendship where God moved towards us in giving the most precious gift He had to give – Jesus, His Son. He made the first move to us. There are many […]
A Pastoral Christian letter offering reassurance and reflection on how emotional and physical disconnection can reveal the deeper need for spiritual connection. This Pastoral Christian letter serves as reassurance to Poppy that her loneliness can be a doorway to deeper spiritual connection with God, who offers comfort and purpose in hardship, encouraging her to trust […]
There’s a neat little thing people sometimes say to bring comfort: ‘I’m always there for you’! How does it ring true to your own life experience? Growing up, we want to know that someone is with us and that we’re not alone. It is only natural for a child to find the dark frightening, to be anxious on the first day at school or if becoming separated from a parent’s reassuring hand in a crowded street. To be lost and alone is to feel helpless and hopeless. When the skies are dark and menacing, there is an inbuilt need to know that someone is truly near to bring help and a comforting presence. The childhood comforts of a dummy to suck or a teddy to cuddle may pacify a toddler but are of no use as adulthood approaches. Child or adult, the need to have someone always there remains despite the small comfort of substitutes, denial or just putting on a ‘brave face’.
A true friend is always there for you and doesn’t abandon you in tough times – they are a stronghold in times of trouble. This is why they are rare precious gifts to nurture. We have many colleagues, acquaintances and people we like, but a real friend is in a different league. What is a real friend? How do we find them? How do we keep them? Do we have what it takes to be one? Do you have one?
Ever wondered what it’d be like to be living alone on a small inaccessible island? Lighthouse keepers are not the only ones who do – there are many who either choose to be alone or who find themselves alone through life circumstances. Unwanted singleness, bereavement, friendship breakdown, loss of sight, hearing or capacity and loneliness can descend like a dark dense brooding cloud. Joan Collins said that ‘loneliness is the universal problem of rich people’ yet surely it is the poor who are often short of friends.
