We crave human connection, but solitude is also necessary. In this practical presentation, learn how to embrace solitude and deal with loneliness.

ACF Institute 2017: Never Alone

<p>We crave human connection, but solitude is also necessary. In this practical presentation, learn how to embrace solitude and deal with loneliness.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Christian Fellowship (ACF)

Darlye Innocent

Lucien Nana Yobo

How to Deal with Loneliness

Throughout all of ACFI, we've been learning various ways how to equip ourselves to love well, love others well, love God well, love ourselves well.

And this also ties into solitude and loneliness, right?

And Lucien's gonna share with us a little bit more about this particular aspect of the human experience.

I think I put this, this was part of some of the stuff I posted on our Slack group that there are those who after being established and grounded in truth should enter these institutions of learning as students.

They keep living the principles of truth, keep the Sabbath, and yet they will have the opportunity to walk for the Master by dropping seeds of truth in the minds and hearts.

Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, these seeds will spring up to bear fruit for the glory of God and result in saving lives.

So yeah, there are a lot of things that come up, but 1 of the very first thing is that we have, as students on a public university campus, we are there so that we can, 1, leave these principles of truth and keep the Sabbath.

But for us to be able to do that, we ourselves have to be grounded in the truth.

We ourselves must know what the truth is before we are able to share that.

And for us to be able to do that, we can look at the example of Jesus.

So if we go to Mark chapter 1 verse 35 through 39, we can clearly see what was Christ's experience in his own time and in his own day as he went about ministering.

What was it that he had to do before he was able to minister?

I know we live in a social media generation.

The first thing I want to do when I wake up in the morning is to check WhatsApp, check Facebook, check Instagram, check all this stuff, what has happened while I was asleep, you know, what was the latest stuff, check all the breaking news.

Christ, the very first thing he did in the morning was what?

Early in the morning while it was still dark, he went out into a desolate place and there he prayed.

As we are going out to our campus, yes, we want to be able to reach out to our campus, but first we have to spend some time with God.

We have to spend some time ourselves grounded in the truth.

We have to spend some time before we're able to talk about, oh, you know, I want to share, you know, this living water with you.

You have to first of all know what that living water is, know what the truth is before you're able to do that.

So as students, I think that this is 1 very important thing that we tend to forget.

I spent all night studying for this final.

I wake up in the morning, the first thing that comes to my head is just to run out the door and go to class and take that final.

But, you know, throughout our time on campus, we should always remember that we should first begin our time by spending it alone, praying and communing with God.

So it's something you have to be intentional about in order to enjoy.

And Lucia actually has something he'd like to share about his experience.

He just shared earlier that he's from Africa.

And while we were getting together and trying to put together this presentation, he shared about his experience being on campus and how loneliness was a part of that experience.

Okay, So since we're short of time, I'm not going to talk much about me.

But because I said a little bit about that on Monday, as you guys know, I came — not I came, I come.

And as a student, I traveled long ways to come to America.

I remember sitting in the airport far away.

And, you know, things began to dawn on me, you know, what am I doing here?

Maybe I should go hang out with my sisters or my father.

This is the same thing that we face as students.

We go to campus, we're away from our comfort, and we find ourselves all of a sudden in this state of loneliness.

We find, I mean, I vividly remember 1 time I was talking with 1 of the pastors in church, and he says, oh, maybe what we should do is find your wife, so that way you'll not be alone.

You know, So, you know, and all of this stuff is going through my head and my mind, and I'm like, oh, maybe I should go home.

And then to even make things, you know, to add another level of complexity, I decided, well, I decided to study geology.

There's not a lot of advantages of the geology.

And so many times you experience that you have going and studying in a field like that, you don't get to like easily walk down the hall and you meet as fellow Adventists doing that.

Say, you know, like we have a lot of people that are into teaching, nursing, and some good, you know, vocational calling.

But so, and I began to find myself in this place where I am all by myself.

I am on a path that is not taken by a lot of people.

And yet, I have to be able to reach out to my campus.

And yet I have to be able to take this gospel commission and share it with others.

I had no idea how that was going to go about.

I even had no idea about public campus ministry.

Before coming to America, I had no idea how all of these things were going to be moved.

But in spite of all of this, God had a plan.

God says, hey, you know, I know you're coming to America to study.

I'm going to put this plan for you that right now and then when I was leaving home I had no idea what that plan was going to be.

But as I arrived here, you know, shortly after I came here, about 3 months after that, bam, those things just started triggering and setting into motion.

I started finding myself in the community of believers, you know, in the church, you know, with a group on campus, with people I could connect with every Friday night, people who could call me every day, how are you doing?

You know, I found myself as well with a very amazing couple.

You know, these are retired people, Marvin and Mary Ellen Friesen, you know, this is 1 people that have been really great to me.

They will call me every day, hey, how you doing?

They'll come up to me, we cook some food for you.

I've had church members just dropping by randomly, calling me, we want to hang out with you, we want to find out how you're doing.

And I understand, for some of us this might not be the case.

We find ourselves, I'm alone on my campus, I'm alone in my field of study, and we begin to, now we start to develop this, what do I do?

How can I, as Sister Wise said, we're supposed to go out to these campuses, to begin to drop this, how can I begin to effectively do that?

And many of you have experienced the same as well and Guess what your classmates and even your professors might find themselves feeling like they're in silos like they're by themselves So Richard research is showing us that loneliness is actually on the rise.

And I'll go through some of the implications that that has on our campuses and also ourselves.

So loneliness, as many of you mentioned, it causes people to feel empty, alone, and unwanted.

And in Matthew 26, verses 36 to 40, let's turn there, we'll see that we are not unique in experiencing this.

Even Jesus himself felt alone and experienced loneliness.

And so here we could see Jesus' vulnerability.

We already know where he is in his life in this particular passage.

And you would think, okay, he knows that his father's with him.

We know our heavenly father is with us, so why does he need his disciples?

But here he's being human, he's being vulnerable, he's actually mirroring the emotions that the Godhead also has.

The Godhead is in community And here Jesus is saying, I'm going through a really tough time, watch with me, watch with me, stay with me.

And so being vulnerable, I know it's hard for us to do that sometimes because we think because we have God, we have need of nothing else.

But That's not the kind of human experience that Jesus is teaching us to have.

It's okay to be vulnerable, and even in moments of loneliness, it's okay to share those.

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How to Deal with Loneliness

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