"My peace I give you"John 14 : 27

What is loneliness ? Fear of being alone but what is fearful about being alone ? It’s the circumstances that surround it : challenging times, lack of moral support bring about a feeling of isolation and incompleteness we find ourselves in a dark place. But laying at the root of all these emotions is a simple cause , lack of love. When we feel loved we are never lonely , seperate us from that love by lack or physical space we worry , love is our guarantee against the unknown.  Love is our ultimate support .The Samaritans exist as a charity purely on the basis that there is always someone to reach out to. The loneliness of death even when surrounded by family and friends is one of separation a journey that must be taken alone.

Love is not automatic it must be given and because human beings are fallible any love that comes from another person brings with it the fear of withdrawal. It is a twin edged sword we seek it but once found we inevitably fear its loss one fear gets replaced by another.  Try and cut it off and live without it and invariably the path leads inexorably to loneliness once more. God created us with love the essence of which is with us from birth. It need not have been so it’s easy to imagine a world without love where emotional support is simply replaced by a survival mechanism ‘ you help me and I will help you’ . Love is different a true love is unconditional and sacrificial . Love is the mark of our divine parentage and loneliness the inevitable result of its absence.Jesus offered us his ‘ peace’ an inexhaustible, timeless supply of love that supports us in this world and follows us into the next.All we have to do is open our hearts to him and loneliness vanishes lack a wraith in the night the promise is clear ‘ whoever drinks from of the water that I will give him will never thirst’ John 4:14