God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

In our last post from the book of Acts we saw how Paul shared with the Sadducees and Pharisees about his hope in the afterlife. And we looked at how a person’s view of eternity impacts his or her life. If you’re interested, you can learn more here: “Life With or Without Eternity: Darkness vs. Light–Acts 23:6-10”.

In today’s post we’ll see how, if you’re a Jesus follower, you’re never alone (unless you want to be).

Acts 23:11

The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

Acts 23:11

So in our last post we saw how Paul’s at the center of this controversy within the Sanhedrin, the group of leaders that makes up the highest religious governing body in Israel. And this group is becoming very agitated. So agitated, the Roman tribune fears the people in the Sanhedrin might become violent and injure or kill Paul, so he commands his Roman soldiers to take Paul away and house him in some nearby Roman barracks.

So Paul, who has done absolutely nothing wrong, has been taken into custody by the Romans. And that night, there in those Roman barracks, the Lord comes to Paul and stands by him, and says: “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

So yes, Paul’s confined in those Roman barracks, even though he’s done nothing wrong. But, Paul’s not alone. Our Lord comes to him. Our Lord stands by him. And our Lord encourages him.

Loneliness and Isolation

It’s an epidemic: loneliness and isolation. The surgeon general published a report about it in 2023. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, around half of adults reported feeling lonely and isolated.

Here’s a quote from that report:

“Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation has been an underappreciated public health crisis that has harmed individual and societal health. Our relationships are a source of healing and well-being hiding in plain sight – one that can help us live healthier, more fulfilled, and more productive lives,” said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. “Given the significant health consequences of loneliness and isolation, we must prioritize building social connection the same way we have prioritized other critical public health issues such as tobacco, obesity, and substance use disorders.”

Our physical health is compromised when we’re lonely and isolated. We experience an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and premature death. But the mental health problems isolation causes might be even worse. The risk of depression among those who are lonely is twice that of those who aren’t.¹

One thing to keep in mind here is that the apps on your phone, laptop, and tablet aren’t interested in your isolation and loneliness. They’re designed to attract your focus and attention, and to keep you engaged as long as possible: And to keep you coming back as often as possible. They’re designed to put in front of you the-most-interesting-thing-you’ve-ever-seen (or heard) over and over again. And as time goes on, they’re only becoming better at it.²

The problem created by such effective attention-grabbing apps and entertainment is akin to eating McDonald’s at 4:30 in the afternoon. If I fill up on McDonald’s, I have no appetite for the healthy delicious meal Kathy made me when I come home for dinner. If we fill up on our apps and the content our algorithms feed us, we have no interest or appetite in engaging with other human beings.

And this is profoundly unhealthy: mentally, physically, and spiritually unhealthy.

The Solution to Loneliness and Isolation

But there’s good news. Isolation and loneliness, and their associated problems have a solution. And for the Jesus follower, that solution isn’t simply an answer to the mental and physical health problems described above. For the Jesus follower, the solution to loneliness and isolation includes an outpouring of personal strength and power and joy. But also, the solution requires initiative on our part.

Let’s be real. We’re alone because we want to be alone. Our apps, algorithms, and entertainment skew our lives in the direction of low quality interactions. A social media interaction generally leaves us more lonely and isolated than a text interaction. And a text generally leaves us more lonely and isolated than a phone call. And a phone call leaves us more lonely and isolated than a video chat. And a video chat leaves us more lonely than a face-to-face in person interaction. (And the best, highest quality, face-to-face in person interactions include hugs!)

Over the last year I’ve become more and more intentional about connecting myself to people who love Jesus with everything they have and follow him closely. (Here’s a hint: you’ll usually find them doing some kind of service for “the least of these.”) (See Matthew 25:37-40)

The results have been absolutely amazing.

If you’re intentional about connecting yourself to people who follow Jesus closely, your life will never be the same.

“But,” you might ask, “what about connecting with Jesus in prayer, and reading the Bible, and taking communion? What about my devotional life?”

Of course all those things are important. But the people you connect yourself to, the people who love Jesus with everything they have and follow him closely, what do you think those people are doing? Their devotional lives are usually deep and rich. And if you’re connected with them and hanging out with them and serving with them and have deep relationships with them, what do you suppose will happen to your devotional life?

That’s right! Your devotional life will become like theirs.

So connect! This is extremely unlikely to happen by accident. So make it your top priority to find people who are giving their whole selves to Jesus and who follow him well and who radiate the love of Jesus. Find those people and connect yourself to those people on a regular basis.

Jesus will connect with you directly, yes. Jesus is amazing and Jesus does amazing things. But, primarily, Jesus does amazing things through His people.

So if you’re lonely, or you’re depressed, or you have anxiety, or you’re feeling isolated, or you have hurts, or you have needs:

Then you need Jesus.

And Jesus is found in his people. Jesus’ people make up the physical body of Christ.

During the process of creation, God looked at all he had done and all he had made. And about everything, God said, it is good.

Everything.

Everything, except for one thing.

There was one exception.

God said:

“It is not good that the man should be alone.” (Genesis 1:1-2:18)

Notes:

1. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “New Surgeon General Advisory Raises Alarm about the Devasting Impact of the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation in the United States”, May 3, 2023
2. Tristan Harris, “How Technology is Hijacking Your Mind—from a Magician and Google Design Ethicist”, Medium, May 18, 2016
3. G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Create Space, November 15, 2017

Available on Google Play Books and on Amazon!

Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)

Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others. Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus. (Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon and the ebook is now available on Google Play Books.)