People, People, We Need People!

In a recent conversation with a struggling friend, she told me she was trying not to talk to other people in her time of need, but instead rely only on God. This sent up the warning flags in my mind. The more I see, the more I begin to understand the dangers of isolationism. It leads to all KINDS of trouble. So I encouraged her to definitely rely more on God, but not to cut off the people God placed in her life to help her. And she said, Okay, and placed a phone call then and there. Wow! For a second I was a little nervous - she was totally changing her mind based on something I said. It's only me here, not some really wise leader-type person. But then I stopped being nervous, because whether or not it was I who was saying it, it's the truth.

Some of this conviction is colored by my studies in American Lit in college. So many of the great American authors wrote about the dangers of isolationism (look at some of Poe's madmen and Melville's Captain Ahab), and the salvific nature of friendship (see Cooper's Hawkeye and Chingachgook or Melville's Ishmael and Queequeg). It's very convincing to read about.

But some of this is colored by my own observations and experience. I can look back at my college experience and see how my getting together with my Bible School friends every couple of months really saved me from some potentially harmful things. I see how much I miss that now, being pretty much alone here in RI, and how important it is for me to get home and see people again on a regular basis. Sometimes (not right now, thankfully) I have felt starved for real fellowship, and when it came I felt like I was one of Gideon's men, lapping up the water as fast as I could.

Also, I've seen the way that I can stew over something in my own mind, turning it around and around, failing to find an answer. I can see how that could lead to confusion and disillusionment. But a simple phone call, and the ensuing conversation, was like a key that clicked into the lock, and suddenly there was the answer as plain as could be. I couldn't figure it out on my own - I needed someone else to show me that little angle I was missing.

So the point of all of this is that we need other people! That being said, I'm getting off this computer so I can go see my neighbors! :)