Last Sunday, Brian White at Harvest said that “The only distance we feel is distance we create” when referring to how our sin separates us from God.

This was in the context of reading 1 John 1 and the concept of fellowship comes up multiple times.

Earlier that same day, I was talking with my in-laws about Rich Mullins and we were reading about his life and came across this quote:

“I would always be frustrated with all those relationships even when I was engaged. I had a ten-year thing with this girl and I would often wonder why, even in those most intimate moments of our relationship, I would still feel really lonely. And it was just a few years ago that I finally realized that friendship is not a remedy for loneliness. Loneliness is a part of our experience and if we are looking for relief from loneliness in friendship, we are only going to frustrate the friendship. Friendship, camaraderie, intimacy, all those things, and loneliness live together in the same experience.” -Rich Mullins

I think the concepts of loneliness and fellowship merged in my mind and I saw that some aspects of our loneliness are self-caused by being out of fellowship with God.

I had the additional thought that two things create the distance: time and silence

Time meaning the passing of time without actively pursuing fellowship. Either the hustle and bustle of life and shifting priorities, we just don’t make the effort (or have enough gas in the tank to attempt any additional efforts) and we lose touch… either with God, or with friends, family or acquanitance.

This leads to the second loneliness causer… silence. Zero fellowship in silence.

But God through His action upon the cross enables a way for the time and silence to be melted away…. to pick right back up where we left off in the garden… actually beyond that initial created state and now gloriously becoming an heir, not just an inhabitant. Judging angels, instead of being gatekept by them.

So the fellowship that is now possible daily is one that involves time spent with (instead of time away) and talking (instead of silence) and that is a choice we now get to make (not “have to” make) and it makes all the difference in our experience of this world.