We live in a world that is convinced that everything in the universe runs according to basic mechanical principles, such as the laws of thermodynamics or the law of gravity.  We are taught by our experiences that these laws are, for the most part, non-negotiable. If we jump off a roof, we will fall to the ground (unless we hit another object on the way down, then other laws of physics will influence how and where we land). So from a very young age we try to operate within these boundaries. As we grow older, we become convinced that the better we learn these basic principles of the universe, the better off we will be.

There is much to commend learning these laws, but a negative byproduct is that we come to believe we live in a universe that is ruled by a set of blind forces (like gravity) that constantly push and pull us around. We call it names like “cause and effect,” and most Christians think this way as well, except that we add that it was God who put these forces in motion and who put in place the law of reciprocity (the whole “sowing and reaping” thing) to make everything work fairly. You get out what you put in. No more, no less.

Have you ever watched a homeless person from a distance and wondered whose daughter she is? Whose sister or mom or classmate? How did she get where she is? How did she get so alone? In the sixties, the Beatles wrote a song about Eleanor Rigby, a woman who led a life of quiet desperation. We are told she “waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door. Who is it for?” Then the chorus: “Look at all the lonely people. Where do they all come from?”

Where do all the lonely people come from? The ultimate answer comes not from the Beatles, but from the Bible, and it is not a comfortable answer: Lonely people come from the ranks of those who choose to live apart from God.