Stripped of all pretense, naked before God, I'm aware of the universe's vastness and the loneliness of being human. We are all solitary souls before God. Cellular phones may make it possible to be in constant connection with people, but they don't eliminate this deeper loneliness. We need to lament. In Walter Wangerin's The Book of the Dun Cow, the rooster that presided over the mythical community of creatures had lost three sons.
Loneliness comes with loving.
It's unavoidable, but we aren't powerless in the face of it. We can lament. Men who lament will discover in the darkness of loneliness a deeper desire to love and be loved. Loneliness is a gift because it expresses a longing for connection, a yearning for the love that ought to be but is not, a desire that can move us into deeper community. We need to move from loneliness to solitude and friendship.