"Policy makers are concerned this will strain the federal budget and undermine baby boomers’ health. Researchers have found that loneliness takes a physical toll, and is as closely linked to early mortality as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day or consuming more than six alcoholic drinks a day. Loneliness is even worse for longevity than being obese or physically inactive . . .
"The University of Chicago’s General Social Survey, which has tracked American attitudes since 1972, asked respondents four years ago how often they lacked companionship, felt left out and felt isolated from others. Baby boomers said they experienced these feelings with greater frequency than any other generation, including the older 'silent generation' . . .
“ 'I don’t like being by myself,' Ms. Paula Lettice says. 'I wish I were dating. I wish I had somebody significant.' She recently gave up two tickets to a beer-tasting fundraiser when she couldn’t find a date . . .
"In a review of 148 independent studies on loneliness, covering more than 300,000 participants, Julianne Holt-Lunstad of Brigham Young University and colleagues found that greater social connection was associated with a 50% lower risk of early death . . .
"Research suggests that those who are isolated are at an increased risk of depression, cognitive decline and dementia, and that social relationships influence their blood pressure and immune functioning, as well as whether people take their medications."
*****
J.C. O’Hair once wrote in a poem:
*****
J.C. O’Hair once wrote in a poem:
If we’re on the way to glory,
Joy should fill our soul;
‘Tis done by the Holy Spirit when
The Spirit has control.
There are burdens, trials, sorrows,
But God’s abounding grace,
He says, is all sufficient for
Every single case
In an old sermon, Jordan said, “I’ve been telling you for
four decades, I don’t care how high you get in your understanding of truth and
about what God’s going to do and how exciting it’s all going to be, the first
step in ‘getting out of the closet’ is just believing in God’s love for you.
“The Book of Ephesians is full of this stuff. Ephesians 1:6:
‘To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in
the beloved.’
“You go out in the world today and there’s a cry to be
accepted, to belong, to have a connection. People spend time, money, energy,
resources to gain acceptance.
"You see young people giving their lives away—drugs,
sex, etc.—because they want to be accepted; they want to be loved and valued
and they’ll give away their future for the fulfillment of that.
"And you know
what it is—it’s an illusion because it only lasts until, ‘What have you done
for me lately?’ shows up.
*****
“There’s an acceptance that never goes away when God Himself
accepts you; when He meets that need, that yearn, that drive, that thirst deep
down in your heart and He accepts you.
"If no one else ever did, so what?! Who’s
going to last the longest? Them or Him?! Whose opinion is going to be the one
that really counts in the long run?
“I know how it is—you look at yourself and you say, ‘Who
could accept me?!’ You know where God the Father finds you today if you’re
saved? He doesn’t find you in a performance system where you’re living up to
standards and pleasing Him because of it.
“He finds you in the one place in all the universe that He’s
absolutely, sublimely pleased and that’s His Son. Whew! You can relax. All that
tension, all that stuff the world, the flesh and the devil throws at you.
"You
can say, ‘You know what, I’m enveloped in some ever-lasting arms of love, not
because of what I do, but because I’m in Christ.’
“Satan knows that no temptation’s going to succeed in your
life when you remember who you are; that you’re God’s beloved.
*****
“You remember what the name ‘David’ means? Beloved. It took
a David to defeat a Goliath. It took David to destroy the giant. Listen, it
takes someone who KNOWS that he’s God’s beloved to win the fights in life!
“When you understand that you’re God’s beloved, what that
does is it makes you a victor no matter what the Adversary . . . no matter what
the world, the system, the culture, the satanic drive and flow behind that
culture; no matter how your old sin nature attacks, the answer and the victory
is in being God’s beloved.
"One of the things the Holy Spirit prays through Paul who prays
for you and me is Ephesians 3:18-19: 'That you may be able to comprehend with all
saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
[19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.’
[19] And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.’
“Notice that word ‘comprehend.’ God desires that you be able
to get your mind around something and understand it.
“Colossians 1:27 says, ‘To whom God would make known what is
the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory.’
“That’s what God wants you to know. What do you think the
Adversary would want to hide from you?
"The devil doesn’t care if you pack a Bible
and study it--just don’t comprehend out of that Bible what is the breadth, and
the length, and the depth, and the height, and to KNOW the love of Christ, which
passeth all knowledge.
“Why does He want me to know? ‘That you may be filled with
all the fullness of God.’ You see, the goal is to get to know something that
will result in God Himself controlling your life. Even the mundane things of
life, every area of your life.
“Then you move into the places where there are real
challenges and struggles. The injustices of life, the harshness of life, the
things that happen just because you were a bonehead, and yet He says that in
all of it, 'We’re more than conquerors through Him that LOVED us.' "
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