The Silent Pandemic
In 2020, The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published a report entitled, "Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults." Two facts that show the significance of the threat to public health as outlined in the study are as follows:
Social isolation significantly increases a person’s risk of mortality from all causes, a risk that may rival the risks of smoking, obesity, and physical activity (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2017);
Being socially connected in a variety of ways is associated with having a 50 percent greater likelihood of survival, with some indicators of social integration being associated with a 91 percent greater likelihood of survival (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010)
Loneliness is not a new problem nor is it exclusively a problem of just the elderly, it affects all age demographics and has been particularly been exacerbated by the covid-19 induced isolation as a public health measure. In 2018 the UK acknowledging the problem and appointed a Minister of Loneliness citing a study that documented approximately two million people over the age of 75 across England reported going weeks without any meaningful social interaction.
Man is gregarious by nature because that is how our Creator made us to be. We are not meant to live apart from meaningful community. The life of faith always takes place within a community, the body of Christ. C.H. Bullock made the following observation about the Psalms, "The Psalmist could not see himself as an individual apart from Israel. His self-identity was bound up in his participation in the community of faith." What is your self identity bound to? Have you even reflected upon it? Do you have a meaningful community? One of the positive outcomes from the covid -19 pandemic was that it forced us as a Church to reflect on the importance of the community of faith and worshiping together as believers We concluded that worshiping in person amongst the community of believers was our priority and we acted with that in mind. Watching a service on line leaves much to be desired as a realistic long term substitute for worshiping in person. Yet, some churches are considering going online exclusively. That is akin, from my perspective, to going through a drive by viewing at a funeral home.
The American lifestyle has fostered the ideal of the "rugged individualist," neighborhoods have lost their sense of community and are becoming more isolated from their neighbors, soaring divorce rates, broken and scattered families, and the loss of the church as a meaningful part of people's lives, all contribute to the loneliness problem today. Mother Teresa purportedly said, "The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved." The church has the answer, the Body of Christ, it is the most meaningful answer to loneliness. It is a community where we pray and worship together, grieve and rejoice together and love one another.