“You’ve got to walk…that lonesome valley…you’ve got to walk…it by yourself…” the song goes. As it was with our father of faith, so with every sojourner. “Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him.” There is no other way.
On the day that I set out to walk with God
I became lonely.
My family insisted
That I remain with it –
I chose my loneliness,
Part of the price to pay
For obedience to God.
I entered a family of those
Who claimed to walk with God,
Only to discover feigned faith.
They insisted I be as they.
Called out from among them
Again I was lonely.
He gave me a wife
Knowing it not good
That I should be alone.
Together we searched for friends –
A cup of water here
And a cup there
But no well.
Today, after many years,
He gives us a son
Who helps to bear our loneliness
But we are lonely.
What is it to be lonely?
It is to be alone
In desires, in thoughts, in understanding,
In conversation, in goals and interests,
In activity, in purpose.
Added to our loneliness,
Betrayals and disappointments
To sharpen the pain that is there –
They come with smiles
And depart with frowns.
Added to our betrayals and disappointments,
The enmity of adversaries
Opposing what we are
And why we are here,
Hating us without a cause
Added to the hatred,
Loneliness,
For they hate us
And us alone.
Moon River, Oct. 29, 1991