Editors note: I originally wrote this piece in March of 2020. This is part one of a multi-part series of the lessons I have been learning during COVID-19. Hopefully this will be helpful to you in some capacity. If you have not read part I, CLICK HERE.
I am 50-50 introvert-extrovert. If I have too much “people time”, I feel like I am going to die. If I have too much “alone time”, I feel like I am going to die. And lately, I have had tooooooooooooo much lonely time. I live alone in my apartment, and I don’t have a ton of friends up in The Great North™.
It seems as though when I don’t have solid community, I slowly implode and my spirit is broken. I don’t have people to tell me the lies I tell myself of not being “good enough” are false. And this can be so damaging to my psychological well-being. (Not only this, but the last human interaction I had with a woman I thought was attractive before everything shut down was squawking like a prepubescent teen boy and slinking away. So now I have a sinking feeling that I am going to die alone because I seemingly cannot talk to women! So that’s fun.) As I write this, Aurora, Illinois, is the 2nd most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in all of Illinois, which is exactly where I live! It’s a fun time living here and never wanting to leave your apartment and not wanting to go near anyone! I feel like an anonymous face, drifting aimlessly through life when I go to the grocery store or to pick up coffee beans to make pour-overs.
To be honest, I hate this. I hate living alone. I hate not having deep friendships. FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Zoom, and Skype have been helpful, but it’s not the same as the real deal. Through this, the importance of community has totally been exposed. Ecclesiastes 4:12 comes to mind. “By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.”
We were made to be KNOWN. To be LOVED. To let people into the most inner-workings of our soul and tell them our hurts, our desires, and have them there to pick us up when we’re down. I took community far too much for granted. A luxury I will no longer take for granted.
True community is so important. Find it, cherish it, and let them know how much you appreciate and love your people.