Alone on a Friday: Isolation, Identify, and the Forsaken Savior of the World

If being alone during this pandemic is especially hard, look to the One who experienced loneliness at a level we never will precisely because he faced what he did for us on the cross.

Sometimes a word or phrase arrests us with its simplicity and its weight. This is especially true in a season which renders a given term especially important. “Alone” is such a word right now. Many of us understand the term in a different light than before.

Social distancing, quarantines, and isolation have become a part of everyday life right now. We aren’t used to the elderly who are sick being alone in hospitals separated from family. We are coming to terms with healthcare workers who have to remain isolated from their families while they work with COVID-19 patients. We are moved by the scenes of spouses of many decades waving at their dearest from outside the glass of a nursing home window.

Individualism

Let’s face it, we Americans love our freedom and its corollary individualism. But we love our individualism because it allows us to choose when and who to spend time with. We like to be separate from people, but only when we get to choose it. We can’t escape that we are social beings.

The important measure of social distancing which seems to be showing some positive effect on the spread of COVID-19 reveals “that America’s individualistic framework is deeply unsuited to coping with an infectious pandemic,” because of the shift in our thinking “from an individual-first to a communitarian ethos.”

So, most of the time “alone” is not that big of a deal. But for many right now, alone means very lonely, disconnected, and anxious. But this is not the only prescient expression to consider.

Let me give you another one.

The Ultimate Oxymoron

“Good Friday.”

This expression is the ultimate oxymoron, that the death of our Savior would make this day so good. ...