What is the Fastest Growing Public Health Crisis? More Importantly, How Do You Avoid It? Here's How

At my church's Learning Center, we have a whole bunch of international exchange students from China working at the school this month.   And it didn’t take long before a parent texted one of our staff this past weekend.  Hey about those Chinese students?  I know it’s silly but with that whole coronavirus going on, is it safe?   Now we were able to assure her that our exchange students are indeed healthy and come from nowhere near Wuhan.   But still I get it.   She was just asking what a lot of other parents were probably thinking.   You hear about some strange new virus from some other part of the world, and you get nervous. It’s a little scary.

Still, whatever the potential issues with coronavirus, your more run of the mill flu virus still holds a lot more danger by a long shot.  Just look at the numbers. As of when I posted this, about 300 had died from Corona Virus in China so far,and in the rest of world only one. Granted, 300 plus deaths isn’t great.  But how many died as a result of the regular old flu last year?  How about 57,000 andthat’s just in the U.S.  So maybe getting a flu shot isn’t a bad idea.

But forget the flu, do you know the public health crisis that is growing faster than any other?  And this one is scary.  It can shorten your life by 15 years.  It’s as much a killer as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or having obesity.  And a year ago one out of two Americans reported struggling with this problem.  Now, in just one year, it’s gone up to 3 outof 5.  And if you use social media a lot, it’s worse.   Seven out of ten of those folks struggle with this serious health issue. 

Ok, so what’s this issue that affects over half our nation, including many severely? It’s living a lonely life.  Loneliness has become the fastest growing public health crisis in America, heck not just America, all over the Western world.   Do you know the British government has even appointed a minister in charge of alleviating loneliness?  I kid you not.   And it makes sense. Loneliness is literally killing people.

But how can that be?  How can you experience loneliness when you’re surrounded by millions of people, when you can have a thousand Facebook friends?    You can experience it because we are living in a world that lacks connection.   Think about the HOV lane?  Do you know what qualifies you to get in the HOV lane? You just need to have someone besides you in the car. That’s what makes a High Occupancy Vehicle, more than one person in your car.  That’s it.  And yet most of the time, how many of us don’t qualify? 

And what’s scary is you can get disconnected, and not even realize it. All those Facebook friends and Instagram posts and Netflix binges blind you to just how bad it is.  But then a crisis hits, and you realize you don’t have that many folks to call, if any.   Or you look at your spouse and ask yourself, when did we last really talk or you catch yourself looking at your phone when your child or your friend desperately wants your attention?   You are disconnected, and if you let it continue, it will blindside you as badly as that poor quarterback up on the screen.  But in this world of mass distraction and disconnection, how do you have true connection?  How does that happen?  In these famous words, Jesus shows you the way.  Let’s listen and hear what Jesus has to say.   

Matthew 5:6 - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

In these few words, Jesus tells you a key truth.   Do you want happiness, fulfillment?  That’s what blessed means after all.  It’s means happy, fulfilled.  That’s fulfillment comes when you hunger and thirst for righteousness.    But how does righteousness fulfill?  What does that word even mean?   I am filled up with righteousness, and I am feeling awesome.   Does that sound all that fulfilling?  It may even sound a little scary.  

But that’s because too often, folks confuse righteousness with rules.  But righteousness doesn’t mean keeping the right rules.  It means pursuing the right relationships.  Jesus is saying fulfillment comes when you hunger and thirst for real relationship, for true intimacy with God and with others. 

In fact, this whole book, the Bible is focused on just that, relationships. Why?  Because nothing in the universe matters more than relationships.   That’s why Christians came up with this idea of God as Trinity, one God in three persons.   It’s not like Christians were just thinking.  Ok, here’s Jesus, and oh, then there’s God, and what about that Holy Spriit thingy.  We’ll just squeeze them all together, and call that one God. 

No, God as Trinity means that relationship lies at the heart of everything including God.  Even God is a living relationship.  And that means, if you don’t have relationship, real relationship in your life, then you are missing the most important thing in the universe.  You are built for relationship, yet in this day and age, too few have it.

Do you know what’s the most private part of any home, what few folks outside the family get to check out?   And don’t say the medicine cabinet.   Because, anyone at a party can check that out when they go to the bathroom.  And come on, you know you’ve done it.   No, the one place that few folks get to check out is the refrigerator.  But how many refrigerator friends do you have?   How many friends do you have that you would feel comfortable having them saunter over to the fridge and checking out what’s there?  But everyone needs a refrigerator friend.

Do you have a friend or two with whom you can share your most embarrassing secrets, confess your deepest regrets? Do you have someone that you can call in the middle of the night in the midst of a crisis, and know they’ll come.   Do you have someone that you trust like that?  Too many folks don’t.  Too many folks are living in a world with relationships that stretch a mile wide but go an inch deep.    

And to be honest, a lot of us are kind of ok with that.  After all, it’s a little scary to trust someone like that.  But when you have, when you have risked that sort of vulnerability, you realize how beautiful and powerful it is. 

After all, God became that vulnerable and more for you?  In Jesus, God came for one reason, and one reason alone, to bring you back into relationship, to bring you back into the love.   And God came knowing that when he reached out, rejection would come, even death.  But he knew that only by becoming that vulnerable, only by taking that huge a risk, by making that profound a sacrifice, could God break past the walls that we had built up, and bring us home.   So, in Jesus God did that.  And that love, that risk changed everything, even death itself. 

It’s what we celebrate in the Christian experience of communion, a God who did that for us, who loves us like that.   And because in Jesus, God did that for you and me, you can know.  No matter what mistakes you’ve made, what doubts you carry, at that table, everyone is always invited, always welcomed, always loved.

But Jesus didn’t only die to break down the barriers that keep you from God. Jesus came to free you too, to go deeper in your relationships with each other. God came to create a community where you can be real and known, where you know you’re always invited, welcomed and loved.  

And we want to give you an opportunity to explore experiencing just that right now.   In the coming weeks, we’re going to be launching what we’re calling a new life group at fpcoh.org.  And that’s exactly what it is, it’s a group of folks with whom you do life. You get together for a few hours during the week, share, talk about a spiritual insight to help you grow in your relationships with God and others, and pray together.  That’s it.  And all you need to do to explore that further is text this word, welcomed, to this number 555888.   That’s it.  Then we’ll follow up from there.  

What do you have to lose?   You can just come, check it out, and see what a life group is about, and go from there.  And what if when you do, you discover connection, real connection.  What if it opens you to friendships that last you a lifetime, support that carries you through tough times? What if in that community you discover a deeper relationship with God and others than you might have ever thought possible?    So just take out the phone and text the word.

  

You need relationship.  I need it. Everyone needs it. God created you for it, to hunger and thirst for it even.   And God did everything, even giving up his life, so that you might have it now and forever.  Don’t live a disconnected life, one a mile wide and an inch deep.   And if you know or even suspect that you might be disconnected, then don’t let another day go by without taking a step to change that.  God built you for that relationship.  And God even died for you to have it.   So, reach out and connect, even type and text that word welcomed to 555888; be willing to know and be known.  For blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for right relationship, for they shall be filled.