Job 19:10 - "He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; and He has uprooted my hope like a tree".
With prolonged hurt and suffering brings anguish for an answer, any answer even death. Prolonged hurt and suffering brings Isolationism.
If prolonged hurt and suffering brings distaine from others then hope in broken on another level. Small talk and chatter from others brings a feeling of isolationism.
Isolationism brings rebuttal as those who suffer look and see the problems that friends have. Isolationism brings a distorted view of others and their motives for passing judgement on those who suffer.
Isolationism brings an accounting of all the wrongs ever done. A rechewing of the hurt and pain once suffered at the hands of others therefore building a stronger wall of isolationism.
Isolationism brings a distorted view of God and His sovereign plan for me. The distortion alters the core of who God is and His attributes that make Him God.
HOWEVER - Isolationism does not have to squelch the last ember of hope in a sovereign God.
- Isolationism can be a time of stillness before God to know Him better - Psalm 46:10
- Isolationism can be opportunities to "inscribe in a book" the fact that we "know our Redeemer lives, and at the last he will take His stand on the earth". Satan has lost the ultimate battle even if he continues to fight on.
- Isolationism causes those around the one who is longsuffering fear that they too may one day suffer as this individual. Therefore, the distancing from him who is longsuffering is a fact of life for "wrath brings punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is judgement." Friends fear that they too will suffer and end up in Isolationism.
As a DevotedDisciple of Jesus we need to see both sides of Isolationism as possibilities of growth and change. Allow the Spirit to use times of solitude, hurt, longsuffering to be times of correction , reproof, teaching, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Let Isolationism be the moments that we can be still and know God (Psalm 46:10). Find the kernel of truth in each situation as Dad Leonard use to tell me every Friday afternoon