The Need of a Christian Loner

I love John Piper's admonitions here. We need community. We need fellow Christians. I want to address one thing that he said toward the end of this Ask Pastor John podcast. He first addressed Christians who would rather just be loners. Then he spoke to Christians like me who have trouble developing those deeper relationships. He expressed sorrow over the difficulty that we have. Then he admonished us to trust God to guide us. Finally he said this:

"Be for others what you long for them to be for you."

In my previous post, I detailed some areas I typically have difficulty with in socializing with other people. First, John Piper said some great things and I encourage you to listen to what he said.

But secondly I have a little trouble with the advice I quoted here. You see, I don't know how to be for someone what I long for them to be for me. What I long for is the kind of rapport I see others have. I long for the kind of relationship that I see others have for each other where they go and visit each other. In other words, I see people who have the kind of friendship where they know where their friends keep the keys hidden to the back door and know that they are welcome to use them. I could invite someone to the house, but I wouldn't know what to do with them once they got here.

If someone out there knows how to teach me how to develop that kind of relationship, then I could perhaps follow what John Piper says here. Of course, even that requires being able to develop that kind of relationship it seems. So, if you know how to teach people like me how to develop relationships like this and you see people who could use your help, then I urge you to take the initiative because someone like me probably won't be able to effectively ask for it.