That's What the Lonely Is For

That's actually a title of a David Wilcox song, but plagiarism aside I think this is shaping up to be one of the chief questions in my life: what is the purpose of loneliness?  I had a friend in Virginia, a very smart man who had married a not-so brilliant woman.  He found their intellectual incompatibilities to be a stark reminder of how alone he was in some respects.  He also found that it served to remind him that this world is not perfect and cannot meet the needs of a soul.  Furthermore, it moved him to contemplate the days when loneliness would be extinguished in light of perfect fellowship with God.  

I feel less confident in my answers.

It seems, these days, that I have difficulty fathoming any explanation of God that requires Him to be more than a concept, a theological problem to be worked over throughout the course of human history.  Naturally, I believe that there must be some better experience to be had, some validating event in life that would lead rational, intelligent men and women to cling to the promise of a transcendent, personal God.  Surely, they can't all be victims of a common delusion?  

I find that troubling questions are raised: have these individuals coerced themselves into "experiencing" what they thought must be true of God?  Where did the idea of a personal God originate? Who was the first to propagate this concept and to establish it as the criteria by which one's eternal destiny ought to be judged?  I believe in God - the teleological arguments have done it for me.  Beyond that, I am hard pressed to express conviction in any other element of Christianity.  I am wary, because I want it to be real.  I desire that the Bible be true.  I wonder, though, if that very longing will become a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.  I suspect that one day I will discover that I cannot cling to reason and faith with equal tenacity.  As much as I want to reconcile the two I find that I do not possess the mental acuity to render them mutually inclusive.