Due to the pandemic, many in America and other parts of the world are living in isolation. As someone who has been living as a hermit due to ALS for more than twenty years, it didn’t take this pandemic for me to discover that living like a fugitive in a hideout isn’t good for you emotionally or spiritually. Living in isolation isn’t good for us physically, either. From what I’ve read, people are abusing food, alcohol, and drugs more often.

The Bible also tells us that isolation is not God’s plan for mankind. The first observation that God made after creating man was, “It is not good for the man to be alone…” (Genesis 2:18). He told Adam and Eve to be “fruitful and multiply.” God made us for fellowship with Himself and with others who are living for Him.

It didn’t take long for Adam and Eve to mess up God’s original plan. The very next chapter records the “fall of man.” Their disobedience introduced mankind to shame, fear, pain, sickness, blaming God and others for our wrongs, deception, spiritual and physical death, and hiding from God–the worst kind of isolation there is.

With a few exceptions, things went downhill from there. But then Jesus, “the second Adam,” came to show us how we can get everything back that the first Adam lost. He paired up His disciples and gave them the “Great Commission”:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Jesus never sent one of His followers out alone, not even on a simple errand. The only instance I can find of a disciple going out alone is when Judas went to betray Jesus. The night Jesus was arrested, Peter was encircled by an angry mob and didn’t have another disciple with him. When pressed three times, he denied being a follower of Jesus. When a lion hunts, it tries to isolate a weak member of a herd. I wonder if Peter was thinking about that night as he wrote this:

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8).

I didn’t attend church for three months after making a commitment to follow Christ in 1983. I still believed the “most Christians are hypocrites” lie. I was afraid that if I went to church, their hypocrisy might rub off on me. I set an all-time speed record for going from unworthy sinner to self-righteous hypocrite. Meeting in my small apartment, the Church of Me, Myself, and I wasn’t working out very well, and the pastor was not very good, either.

“Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” (Proverbs 18:1).

“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up…And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).

The grandmother of a friend invited me to church and lunch after at their home. I agreed to go. Living in Texas, eleven hundred miles from my mother’s cooking in Illinois, the offer of a home-cooked meal was too good to pass up. I kept going back to that church and made many good friends, including my best friend, who I married thirty-five years ago this month.

There are hypocrites attending church, of course, but, from what I’ve observed, most of the people I used to classify as hypocrites are just churchgoers or sincere believers saying or doing something un-Christian. Regardless, the Great Commission is not merely for us to attend church, but for us to become disciples of Christ and to disciple others.

Because ALS has rendered me homebound, I haven’t been able to attend church in years. I miss going to church. Sadly, many of you now know what it’s like to be without your church family. With the death, economic destruction, political division, and the closing of churches and relief organizations, COVID-19 looks as if it was stirred together in a cauldron by demons over the flames of hell.

Where is God in all of this?

He is still on His throne. He is still assisting Christ’s disciples in fulfilling the Great Commission. And He is also working through them to meet the needs of the poor and suffering.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:23-25).

I know it must sound crazy to those who are not followers of Christ, but many of us believe that we are living in the last days. As the above passage tells us, it’s vital for disciples of Christ to gather together and strengthen one another’s faith. The passage ends by telling us that this is even more important as we “see the Day drawing near.” You don’t have to be a theologian to figure out that “the Day” is Judgment Day.

It’s great to attend church, but, as we now know, this option can be taken away. In these difficult days, be intentional to surround yourself with strong disciples. With COVID, we might have to get creative and meet over Facetime, Skype, or Zoom. You don’t need a large group; two or three will do.

“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:20).

(Friends, I have been AWOL from the blogging world the last month or so. I have missed interacting with you. I have been dealing with breathing and exhaustion issues. As most of you know, I type with an eye-tracking computer. I’ve discovered that I have to keep my eyelids open for the computer to work :-)).