Understanding Loneliness

Loneliness can affect us all to some degree – whether you’re a mature Christian, a new Christian, or a non-Christian. The question is, How should we, as Christians, understand loneliness? How can we make sense of it, and help ourselves out of it? Author and speaker Lydia Brownback has recently written a book called Finding God in My Loneliness, where she dives into this relevant issue. We have the privilege of chatting with her this week, asking her some of the relevant questions around the topic of loneliness. “What do I do with my loneliness?” “Was it meant to be this way?” “I’m single and lonely, what do I do?” are some of the questions we answer during this week’s conversation.

 

Who’s Our Guest?

Lydia Brownback (MAR, Westminster Theological Seminary) serves as a senior editor at Crossway in Wheaton, Illinois, and an author and speaker at women’s conferences around the world. Lydia previously served as writer in residence for Alistair Begg and as producer of the Bible Study Hour radio program with James Montgomery Boice. You can find her blog here.

Episode Links

Lydia’s book is called Finding God in My Loneliness.

Read It

*Below is an edited transcription of the audio conversation.

With me today is author and speaker Lydia Brownback. Lydia serves as a senior editor with Crossway Publishing, and at least through Crossway she’s written about nine books or so – maybe she can correct that, but thanks for being with me today Lydia.

I’m glad to be here Isaac.

Before we jump into our topic/issue today which is loneliness, why don’t you just first tell us who you are a little bit – what you do, and also if you could, how you met Jesus.

Well, we could take the whole interview with just that. I work at Crossway books; I’ve been here for about a decade. And before that I worked for a pastor named Alistair Begg in Cleveland, Ohio. And then I worked for James Montgomery Boice years before that, producing his radio program called the Bible Study Hour.

Along the way I started writing, and I’ve been doing that ever since. And that’s sort of where my passion is – I love to write, to communicate God’s Word and truths about God’s Word, to help women especially connect with God more fully and more truthfully. So that is my great passion.

But any way I can be working in the Word of God, whether it’s through my vocation or through my writing, that is exactly what my joy in life is.

And how did you meet Jesus?

Well, I was a teenager at the time. My parents had split up, and it was a very lonely time for me. And my mother became a believer as a result of that difficulty in our family. So through her faith I was led to know Jesus.

Now, last year you wrote a book called Finding God in My Loneliness, a provocative title. Before we dig further into that, what are you referring to here as “loneliness”? I feel like it’s an ambiguous term, what do you mean by that?

This book was not something I even thought about writing. A fellow writer and speaker suggested to me several years ago that I write on this topic, and I remember, at first, initially, I didn’t want to do it. I thought “Why? You’re just asking me or suggesting that because I’m single and you think I’d be a good one to write about that.” So I resisted the idea.

But then as I thought about it and began looking around I realized,

“No, it’s not just a singleness issue, it’s a universal issue,