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Loneliness Has a Cost

Guys like Chuck Norris and Bruce Willis have done us a dis-service. I say that, though I enjoy the Chuck 1-liners and Bruce's movies. But what they have done, along with others like Stallone and Schwarzenegger, is to give us an idealized picture of being alone.

Let's look at the facts. One guy with a limited arsenal takes out an entire army whose sole purpose for 2 hours is to rid the world of the 1-man show. Never mind that the loner can only shoot so many people at once. Never mind that it would appear that every terrorist army is made up entirely of people who couldn't hit a barn, much less a huge, hulking warrior. We're also supposed to believe that these mavericks are all witty and have extra time to charm a lady.

It doesn't work.

Even if it did, we seldom look at this from the other side. A recent story, which I found here, brings the other side to light. It appears that an entire town, Sodeto, Spain, bought lottery tickets for a Christmas lottery known as 'El Gordo'. The entire town, that is, except for 1 man.

Everyone else in town bought tickets, with numbers that matched. Then they won $950,000,000! That's not a typo. Each ticket paid out $520,000. So everyone in the town just won $520,000. Everyone, that is, except for this one guy, by the name of Costis Mitsotakis.

Talk about feeling alone. Now it doesn't look so good. The shine of being a commando has worn off. It has the more realistic feeling of cold and lonely. Yeah, more often than not, 1-man armies lose.

This is why God encourages community. From giving Eve to Adam to ensuring that the first church understood the responsibilities of community, God has been telling us over and over again that loneliness has a cost.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. ~1 Corinthians 12:21-26

Are you a maverick? What do you find to be the hardest part of depending on other people?
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Comments

Anonymous said…
The hardest part of depending on people is "depending on people".
Too many let you down and you shut down. It's just the way it is.
February 14, 2012 at 11:37 AM
Rick Nier said…
That sounds like a choice. Does it have to be that way?
February 14, 2012 at 11:49 AM
David dollinger said…
So true. The greatest achievement possible in our own power is interdependence Yes people will do stupid things to you. People will say stupid things to you. But yet it boils down to perspective. The optimist says "the glass is half full. I will always have friends who will build me up through Gods strength. The pessimist says "the glass is half empty". People will always let me down. The opportunist will drink the glass while the other two are arguing and will make the most of what they have in front of them.
February 14, 2012 at 12:13 PM
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