Christmas in Africa. That wasn’t something this Midwestern girl planned to experience while growing up with regular snow and ice storms each December.
But there I was… serving in the Peace Corps in a tiny village in West Africa, and buying a plane ticket home for the holidays was out of the question. Instead, my parents packed a box of cocoa mix, candy canes, a jar of peanut butter and a solar-powered lamp and prayed it would arrive before the new year.
Christmas in Africa was lonely. After decades of candlelight church services and family gatherings with Grandma’s cookies, I found myself sleeping on a hard cot, sweating through the night and wondering if it was snowing back home.
But then something miraculous happened. I gathered with a group of other volunteers in a nearby town on Christmas day. We pooled our treasures from home – a box of macaroni and cheese, a bag of coffee beans, a bar of chocolate – and we sat in the loneliness… together.
We told stories and shared memories. We laughed and let tears of sadness converge with tears of joy. And while the loneliness didn’t disappear, the load became lighter.
When we connect, commune and gather together, we dispel the lies we’ve bought into that no one cares. Together, we throw off the wet blanket of loneliness that is weighing us down and urge each other to lean into the light.
In this issue, we dive into the very real emotion of loneliness, how it affects us and what, as Christ followers, we can do about it. We’re covering…
- How loneliness affects people across generations
- The highs and lows of solitude
- How loneliness can impact your health
- Insights on community and sacred solitude as keys to fighting loneliness
What steps can we take to combat the loneliness we see around us?
It can be as simple (and terrifying) as inviting someone to grab a coffee or asking a new attendee to join you for lunch after church service. Maybe it’s offering a seat at your table during the holidays. The hardest part is opening our mouths and our hearts to invite others in. But creating a community is worth the risk.
As I pencil in more events on the family calendar and juggle a platter of tasks (gasp – I need to buy a turkey!), I’m also convinced that my stuffed schedule is an attempt to combat loneliness. I’m filling things so I don’t have to feel things.
But this holiday season, I want to be intentional about setting aside time to sit in the quiet and commune with my Savior, the Light of the World.
Will you join me?
Lacey joined the Christian Leader staff as editor in July 2025. She has more than two decades of experience in editorial writing and strategic communications, creating and editing content for newspaper, magazines, websites and email campaigns. With a background working with government and faith-based organizations, Lacey is passionate about creating engaging stories which inspire and support readers. A native Kansan, she graduated from Kansas State University in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications. Lacey, her husband and their two girls live in Wichita, Kansas, and attend Ridgepoint Church.
