Please say hello to my little friend, his name is Leo.  I met Leo on a visit to the Atlanta Zoo where he lives with a bunch of his neighbors.  Of course his is a solitary life because he has a bad temper and does not play well with others.  He lives in a one bedroom apartment with glass walls and only eats delivery food.  His attitude is so bad he does not have a girlfriend even though his keepers have played matchmaker several times.  But none of the ladies will ever consent to a second date.  I guess you could call Leo a loner because he has so few friends and that suites him just fine.

                Someone says, you cannot call Leo a loner because he has hundreds of visitors every day.  People stand in line to take a look at Leo; He can’t be lonely because he is famous.  But the sad truth is a crowd is not company.  Even in the middle of a large crowd you can feel frightfully alone?  Albert Einstein once said, it is strange to be known so universally and yet be so lonely.  Judy Garland wrote, if I’m such a legend, then why am I so lonely? . . . Let me tell you, legends are all very well if you’ve got somebody around who loves you.

                For two decades Judy Garland struggled with addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol, and finally died of an apparent sleeping pill overdose at age 47.  How sad it must had been to be so famous, so rich and so friendless; then to take your own life in a lonely bathroom.  Loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.  We have all had feelings of isolation and loneliness.  Loneliness is the first thing that our Creator looked upon and called, not good.  We’re all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.  The deepest need of man is the need to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of his aloneness.

                The good news is, we have been given the key to unlock the lonely door of our prison cell.  The Key is found in loving other people; in getting your eye off yourself and your problems and focused on those around you.  If a man would have friends, he must show himself friendly.  Look around you today, find someone who needs a friend and be that friend; and guess what, you are not lonely any more.  People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.

Something to think about:

• Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.

• Language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.

• Loneliness and the feeling of being uncared for and unwanted are the greatest poverty.

• He who knows he is loved can be content with a piece of bread, while all the luxuries of the world cannot satisfy the craving of the lonely.

• Many people suffer from loneliness because they are sitting instead of serving.

• A friend is one who helps you bridge the gaps between loneliness and fellowship, frustration and confidence, despair and hope, setbacks and success.

• Loneliness and solitude are quite different. One is defeat—the other victory.

• Loneliness is being unaware of the One who is with us everywhere.

• Love makes the lonelies go away.

Help me build a bridge
Rickey Moore