Welcome back everyone.

This is a special episode of the podcast based on what's happening in the world right now.

We don't plan to have a lot of coronavirus episodes, but the virus raises a few topics that

we need to address on the podcast and that includes the topic of loneliness, which is what

we talk about today.

This season of self-quarantine is abnormal for most of us and that means the feeling of

loneliness is a reality most of us now face.

We can't visit retirement homes, closed off to us now are churches, workplaces, restaurants.

The sense of isolation and loneliness so common before this virus has been amplified

now by this quarantine.

No surprise we're hearing this theme in our inbox, his listeners right in.

So Pastor John, what would you say to the lonely during this season?

That's a good word you just said.

Things are amplified now that in a sense have always been true for some.

So maybe the first thing to say is that I'm aware that thousands of Christians live

alone all the time and deal with the issue of aloneness and sometimes loneliness, even

when there is no corona virus to amplify the issue.

A few of these people love it that way.

Most of them, most of them probably can imagine situations they'd rather be in, whether

marriage or friendships or memberships that just haven't come their way.

So we're not talking about an issue here that is only relevant during corona virus.

But there is no doubt that millions of people are being thrown now into a kind of life

...