“We came into this world alone and we go out of it alone” but do we have to live here alone? So much of our loneliness has to do with unrealistic criteria: we want them to be a certain way, they want us to be a certain way. It appears that a direct result of The Fall is our profound inability to not only accept people as they are but to also enjoy them in the process.

“If you want a friend, be a friend.” That’s a rough one, huh? Sadly our days of trying to be friends with the most popular and cool kids on the playground aren’t all that far behind us. We are surrounded by lonely, isolated people that would probably love our company but because they don’t meet our selfish, hidden criteria, we sit alone waiting for a better friend choice.

As Christians, this is an abomination on so many levels but I believe God allows it to avoid something worse: The Charity Friendship. You know the one where you befriend an undesirable cuz you’ll win points with The Big Guy and make yourself feel better. That’s the worst. Not only does the other party usually realize that’s the case but they go along with it because it’s better than nothing, driving them deeper into the abyss of their absent self-esteem.

I know there won’t come a day in our lives where unconditional love truly flows until Christ returns to set things right. But I thought it might be nice to remind so-called believers that this is what he commanded us, that we love one another as we love ourselves, that we esteem others higher than ourselves, and we remove the blank from our own eye before picking at speck in our brother’s.

Hopeless, pointless, romantic and silly I know. But it was His idea not mine.

Maybe it’s worth a try…