We began a new series at church called, The World Is Flat, based on the concepts of the best-seller of the same title by Thomas Freidman. This week's talk was about loneliness entitled the Lonely World.
As part of his talk, Dave used the story of man by the name of Adolf Steck who died in his home in Chicago and wasn't noticed missing for four years! Where was his family? What about his neighbors? Didn't he have any friends? The story is that his neighbors didn't notice anything out of the ordinary (except for the lawn growing which one of them decided to cut on occasion) and after time, assumed house had been abandoned. And so there Adolph was, in the middle of a city, dead, and no one even noticed.
And then last night, after we arrived home from service, I am reading the news and find this story. It seems a New York man was found dead in front of his blaring television. The tragedy is that he'd been dead for over a year! Seems that when his neighbors didn't see him around, they assumed he'd been sent to a long-term care facility.
Assuming that people have other people to help them is in question in both cases. The neighbors assumed the men had been taken care of. After time these men were simply forgotten. What is equally disheartening is how lonely these men must have felt in their last days. It's just so terribly sad to think that neither of them had anyone who cared for them.
Sadly, I suspect that we will hear more of these sorts of stories in the future.
Dave reminded us that God created us to be connected to others. We are built for community and it's stories like these that reveal how much work we have to do.
Dave offered three ways we Christians (or anyone for that matter) can do something about loneliness:
- Notice people. Just be aware of them and don't assume they have other people around them.
- Listen to people. One way to cure our own loneliness is to help other people with theirs.
- Ask people to do something. Invite them over for dinner. Take an elderly person to the store, etc.
