The recent emphasis on social distancing has not affected me much.  I’ve been doing it all my life.

The Novel Coronavirus worldwide pandemic of 2020 has burdened society to a greater degree than any health concern in our lifetimes.  By that, I mean the life experiences of anyone now living.  It simply has not been seen in our days.  As a result, the world has scrambled to find solutions to the threat.  Though the illness is new, this type thing is not without precedent.

A portion of prevention has been the now several weeks old admonition to stay away from each other.  Don’t work if you are nonessential, don’t leave home unless you must, wear masks and gloves and don’t get closer than six feet to anyone else.  You know the drill.  And there are more besides.

“Social distancing” is the term for measured spacing between individuals.  In other times, this practice would have been termed antisocial.  Nowadays, being distant is seen as a positive thing.  Perhaps, not showing up at all most laudatory.

Today, technology enables us to stay in better contact than would have been true in former times.  We don’t miss “presence” as much since we can be virtually present virtually anywhere.  Still, “no contact” rules hurt, and silence is deafening.

There are reasons people distance themselves from others.

Governmental edicts aside, people lose contact in the normal course of living.  High schoolers vow to be friends forever, but relatively few youthful trusts survive the years.  We scatter like leaves in the fall.  It’s not that we don’t care anymore or have wandering thoughts.  Rather, it’s that former acquaintances are no longer in our lives.

People may feel misplaced.  The thought that something is not quite right is common even among the seeming well-adjusted.  Some are strangers in their own homes.  Often, folk’s self-perception does not match public-perception.  Discomfort is better handled at a distance.

Many have learned that absence prevents pain.  I’m sort of a “close the door, turn the page” kinda guy myself, and have come to understand that certain situations cannot be remedied.  You just move along.  Not perfect, I know.  Neither am I or anyone else.  The Lord judge between us.

For some, the solitary life is personality-driven, and the personality tends to remain stable over time.  Motivation will not change the lonely bent.  Personalities adjust and modify but remain as originally designed.

Though valid reasons separate us, we function best in community.  It is the template of humanity.  Enjoying solitude is not the same as continual solitude.  Some studies have shown that connections increase the quality and quantity of life.  It is not good for man to be alone.

Our need to be part and parcel of a commonwealth is seen nowhere more clearly than in spiritual matters.  God’s design is for believers to bind together in local assemblies and become the body of Christ.  It is simply not biblical for professors of faith to rue the church particular or claim sole membership in an ethereal, universal fellowship in which they cannot exercise their gifts, enjoy warmth or perform spiritual duties.  We do not live or die to ourselves.

Having said I’m a lonesome dove myself, I understand those whose basic nature is to stand apart from the herd.  There are spiritual pursuits that can be offered as individual gifts, but the Bible pictures the saved as a building, a body and a flock.  We are a group with a purpose and cannot conceive ourselves individually as without place.  

As with any circle, there are challenges associated with being part of the church, and the longer we are disassociated the less we miss association.  In times of coerced or chosen estrangement, it is good for us to remember the One building the church anyway.

Sterl