According to
a study done by Harvard University, it is learned that the Covid Pandemic is
over, but another epidemic was started before the pandemic. It continued and
worsened during the pandemic and has continued to stay bad after the Covid-19
pandemic is over.
According to
Harvard: Loneliness in America: How the pandemic has deepened an epidemic of
loneliness and what we can do about it.
Here are
some of their findings:
1.
In
our recent national survey of American adults, 36% of respondents reported serious
loneliness, feeling lonely “frequently” or “almost all the time or all the
time” in the four weeks prior to the survey. This included 61% of young people
aged 18-25 and 51% of mothers with young children.
2.
43%
of young adults reported increases in loneliness since the outbreak of the
pandemic. About half of lonely young adults in our survey reported that no one
in the past few weeks had “taken more than just a few minutes” to ask how they
are doing in a way that made them feel like the person “genuinely cared.”
3.
Young
adults suffer high rates of both loneliness and anxiety and depression. According
to a recent CDC survey, 63% of this age group are suffering significant
symptoms of anxiety or depression.
Harvard
gives three recommendations to help deal with this loneliness. What is
interesting is that none of these recommendations talk about being connected to
God, Jesus, Holy Spirit or church. They recommend public education campaigns,
build not just our physical but our social infrastructure at every level of
government, and in our communities and work to restore our commitments to each
other and the common good to renew a founding promise of this country. These
are secular recommendations.
I have some
recommendations for us as Christians and us as a church. I believe the pandemic
made us forget why we are ministers, Christians, churches, and faith
communities. The pandemic forced us to disconnect from each other despite the
growth of social media. Phone calls, FaceTime, or Zoom helped, but when we hang
up, we are still left with ourselves, alone.
I believe it
is our business moving forward post pandemic as ministers, Christians, churches,
and faith communities to start up again what Jesus came to do with his ministry.
He sacrificed himself for our sins and was resurrected to give God’s gift of
eternal life.
He came into
this world to give us a permanent relationship with God and to care for each
other. In other words, go back to
reconnecting/loving God with all of who we are and love our neighbors as we
love ourselves. We are called to restart the eyes of our faith and see there
are people around us who are not connected to God and to each other.
We gathered
to celebrate our country’s birthday on July fourth. May we realize there are
some lonely people out there looking for a relationship with God and with you. May
we respond with the love Jesus taught us.
Let’s continue
our vision and mission sharing God’s love, hope, and joy with the world
Something
to think about and do . . .
Love
you all,
Rev. Craig