For I Am Lonely And Afflicted: Psalms 25:16

Biblical Series #2

Psalms 25:16-19

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
    for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 Relieve the troubles of my heart
    and free me from my anguish.
18 Look on my affliction and my distress
    and take away all my sins.
19 See how numerous are my enemies
    and how fiercely they hate me!

How do we deal with loneliness? When we have no one to look to, or the people around us have abandoned us, or we have made mistakes to push people away, where then do we turn? Millions of people across America struggle with loneliness, which has only been heightened by a pandemic which has insisted on taking away our humanity and categorizing us as more akin to giant germ sacs rather than people. Two out of every three Americans today consider themselves lonely, and it seems to only be getting worse. But most forms of loneliness do not come from a total isolation from other people as you would imagine, but instead from being surrounded by people who make you feel apart from God.

Proverbs 13:20

Walk with the wise and become wise,
    for a companion of fools suffers harm.

In college my freshmen year, my greatest achievements weren’t accomplished at the school newspaper, in my classes, or at the library, but instead took place over Instagram and at the parties, the places where I could win the approval of my fellow students. At the time, I put a much higher credence on whether a girl in my Intro to Biology class thought I was cool and hot over whether or not I even got a passing grade in the class. I had hundreds of acquaintances and people who knew me, but only one real friend. And I was lonely.

When I finally had gotten in over my head with the drinking and partying and my mom kicked me out of the house over spring break and I was forced to get my act together, not one of those people who I knew before came to me with a plan on how to pick myself up. “Screw your mom!” They would say. “Don’t worry about it, let’s go out.” I was surrounded by people who were not at all concerned with my well being and only wanted to be around me when I was “cool,” partying Will. During my sophomore year of college when I started getting political and radically transforming my life, not one of those people stuck around. All but one; the one friend I had from high school who stayed with me through it all. When I was lying on my ass, embarrassed with a report card full of failed classes, he was the one who came to me and told me where we go from here. He worked with me to start my first Turning Point USA chapter, even taking the long drives with me across the state of Colorado to spread conservative values and Trump’s 2016 campaign. Then when it came to it, he helped me film my first video I made for PragerFORCE that I could send to PragerU, which helped me land my internship with them. My first big break. And the funniest part of this is that he wasn’t even that conservative. He was mostly apathetic towards politics, but being my best friend he helped me out no questions asked regardless, whether it was for some new crazy idea I had for a stunt on our campus or help with anything else I needed. JT was my best friend, and despite not having too many other people, whether because of my life changes, or the politics, or my inclination towards solitude, JT was always with me. Without him there is no way I would be here writing this to you all now.

Proverbs 17:17

A friend loves at all times,
    and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

Politics is a dirty game. Anyone who reads the news knows it is about destroying other people’s reputations much more than actually discussing political theory or policy. With the nature of the world I am in, good friends can be hard to come by. Luckily at this point I have accumulated a few truly great friends, but the number is small. What I have come to learn from lots of mistakes and time is that it is better to surround yourself with a few good people who honor God and love you rather than many who are only around you because of a facade you are expressing to the world. Nowadays I spend a lot of time in solitude, but I am contented knowing that even if I’m no longer really going out drinking or the craziest guy at a party, I have my closest friends and family with me, and above all else, I have God. It is truly a liberating thing to care about what God thinks about your actions much more than the thoughts of other people, and I believe now that even if people hate me or my politics, or they hate how stubborn I am, or any of the myriad of other things people probably hate about me, they can’t say I wasn’t real.

Surround yourself with great people and great things will come to you, and be the type of friend that people would admire. Do not give the time of day to people who hate you for your values, or who try and put you down, or who only like the shallowest parts of you. And above all else, always put God first; for when life goes awry, you will have the strength and fellowship to deal with whatever comes your way.

-Will Witt