Thomas Wolfe once wrote: ‘The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.’ But Dr. Karl Menninger the famous American psychiatrist, while giving a lecture on mental health, was asked what advice he would give to people who were so lonely that they felt they could no longer carry on. Everyone expected him to answer, ‘Consult a psychiatrist.’ But to their astonishment he replied: ‘I would tell them to get out of their house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone who is in need, and do something to help them.’
It’s the same thing Jesus taught about the way we find ourselves when we stop being absorbed with ourselves.