Let’s Be Alone Together | Overcoming Isolation While Social Distancing
by Dayna Guzman
A thousand years ago, I used to look forward to the end of the day when I would come home and recharge by myself after seeing other people all day. Oh wait…that was just two months ago. Though it’s only been a few weeks into our global quarantine, it sure has felt like a lifetime, and my social side has been recharged enough to last me decades at this point. With that social energy having nowhere to be expended, I have been feeling isolated and I’m sure some of you have been feeling the same way. While social distancing was meant to provide a safe physical distance from others to slow the spread of COVID-19, it wasn’t meant to cut us off from having community.
Take a moment and think about how your relationships have been the past couple of weeks. Have you let social distancing isolate you or have you been reaching out to friends?
This era of social distancing has revealed to me that many of my relationships have been funded by convenience. Every week I had a similar routine where I would see the same people at the same places. Between work, Impact, and church, I got to see the people I heavily relied upon for socializing. Since the Stay at Home mandate was set in place, the convenience of those interactions has been taken away. Instead all my social contact has come in electronic form. Personally, I don’t thrive off this. I love face-to-face conversations. (Side note: for anyone who has ever texted me, I’m sorry for only replying within 3-5 business days.) As quarantine has gone on and on, I’ve realized I’ve had little to no contact with the outside world. I had a couple days of wallowing before realizing I didn’t make any effort to change that myself and I had been relying on other people to initiate!
We were not created to be alone. Adam was given Eve, God exists in the Trinity, and we are each part of the Church. Paul writes in Romans 12:4-5, “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” God’s design is for us to live in community, growing in our faiths side-by-side. To live in fellowship during this pandemic means we all must put in some extra effort to maintain relationships through means other than physically gathering.
God designed us to crave relationships. He designed us to crave relationship with him. God has been pursuing his children since the creation and has always been present. He pursued us on the cross and he pursues us now. Scripture tells us to live like Christ. “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.” 1 John 2:6. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us…” Ephesians 5:1-2.
Through our feelings of disconnection, God is teaching us what it means to be intentional. It’s clear that we are to follow the footsteps of Jesus in how we love, and Jesus loved us so much he faithlessly calls us to have a relationship with him even when it’s not easy. As members of the body, we should love others through pursuing them especially in this time of extended isolation and fear. It’s important to stay connected through this time as we aren’t able to gather at church or Impact. We are still the Church even when we’re not at one.
So here’s your challenge! Call, text, email, DM, FaceTime, Zoom, send a letter in the mail, train a messenger pigeon, use a plane to write a message in the sky, get creative if you need to. Check in on your friends and small group, send them encouragements, ask them to pray for you and you for them, play a game together, or simply just catch up! You never know, you may be reaching out just when they need it!