About a week now I had this argument with my sister that
pointed out an habit of mine that I had to work on, I told her I will work on
and so help me God, Amen. This led me to thinking about this particular
subject, these two words. On that note let’s get into it. ALONE AND LONELY.
I first came about the difference between these two words in
a church context talking about relationships. But first, let’s all go to the oxford
dictionary
Lonely: sad because
one has no friends or company, solitary
Alone: on one’s own;
by oneself, isolated and lonely (I DON’T AGREE WITH THE LAST TWO)
The difference between these two words in the church context
I talked of was expressed in the fact that one could be alone and happy while
it was impossible to be lonely and happy and every single person needs to know
how to be happy alone, only then can you be happy with anyone. If that’s up for
debate I don’t know, that’s another day’s subject. Here and now I just want to
spot the differences between these two states of a person.
Lonely, you don’t choose loneliness, it finds you. I remember
a song by Westlife, ‘loneliness is always looking for a friend, it found me
once and has been with me since then’, and then in the chorus he chants ‘get
out of my life’. Point is, to be lonely is that one thing no one wants.
Everyone reaches out in some way, like me blogging right now, through a rally,
by loving an undeserving one, rallies on the street for your voice to be heard,
facebooking, tweeting and many others
Alone, you choose to be alone, sometimes one needs
isolation, a retreat from the buzz, it a time to look inwards to reflect, to
reminisce. We choose to be alone so we can be in our space, so we can think
clearly, rid ourselves of all the doubts that the world throws at us every day,
to see things in the right perspective so u can act on what you know and not
what you feel.
Lonely, you are on your own, with no one to count on, you
look through all the contacts on your phone and there is not one person you
feel or know you could call on, not a shoulder to lean on, puts you in a state
of despair with all the negative emotions a man could ever think of feeling
(envy, sadness, jealousy).
Alone, you are isolated but when you look inside of you, you
find people who have overtime become part of your heart that you can call on
and lean on. Lessons learnt that have become anchors, foundations that we can
hinge unto.
Lonely, you are sad; there is an emptiness that yearns to be
filled. And can only be filled by that specific thing you seek.
Alone, you are sad and you find happiness on your inside,
you are happy and it springs from your inside.
Loneliness is never a solution, but alone is a solution a
lot of times.
The first reference to alone is at creation where God said
it is not good that man should be alone. So weather it’s lonely or alone, they
are both not good.
No man should feel lonely at any point in his life; he
should be able to count on someone at every point.
But sometimes, not every time, we need alone. To be able to
pause, drain out the voices in our head and look inside because the best things
in life come from our inside, the things God put on the inside of us.
Personally, I know how to be alone, not sure if I know how
to be alone and be happy as I want to be though(I know I used to, but I’m not
sure about now), I've been blessed never to be lonely, by God’s grace I have
always found a shoulder to lean on in Him or someone He put in my life. So I’m
about to learn to be alone and be happy while at it.
At this point I’ll say this, we live in a world where it’s
easy to become lonely and never find time to be alone. I’ll say this:
Are you Alone or lonely?
GET LONELINESS OUT OF YOUR LIFE BUT LEARN TO BE ALONE
SOMETIMES AND STILL BE HAPPY.