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Keywords

Connection, loneliness, relationships, covenants, Jesus Christ

Abstract

One of the most vexing challenges of our day is a profound hunger for connection, evidenced by an epidemic of loneliness, violence, relational poverty, and increasing mental health challenges. We are born to be in deep connection with others. As German analyst Frieda Fromm-Reichman wrote, “The longing for interpersonal intimacy stays with every human being from infancy through life, and there is no human being who is not threatened by its loss.” A radical cultural focus on autonomy with the associated ruptures in family stability, decreased religiosity and community engagement have increased loneliness in spite of the seeming “connectivity” of a world swimming in social media. The deepest loneliness stems from disruption and disorder in family life. That is profoundly evidenced in the effects of the rupture and lack of deeply bonded relationships. It is evidenced in the fragmentation of sexuality, untethered from its purpose in creating a bond deep enough that a child’s heart could rest upon it. In answer to these most vexing challenges, the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers a gospel of covenant belonging and connection. Within the most intimate and profound relationship of all, we can experience with God Himself, the wholeness that enables the capacity for deep connection and intimacy in all other relationships. The revealed understanding of the nature of our covenant relationship with Christ is the foundation for healing the profound hunger for connection.

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