The CDC reports on the devastating consequences of loneliness. A top psychiatrist’s prescription for cases of loneliness is, “Go back to church.“
1 Peter 3:15 NIV, “…Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have…”
We all have many stories to tell. YOU have many stories someone needs to know.
Here Is My Story
I cannot say I grew up in a Christian home. For the first 15 years of my life, we lived on a neighborhood block with a church on every corner: Methodist, Presbyterian, Nazarene, and Assembly of God.
Over the first seven years of life, our custom was for my two sisters and me to attend Methodist Sunday School. Mom would join us for the church service.
When I was 6-1/2 years of age, my parents divorced. Our lives radically changed. In our South Texas culture, divorce was assumed to be the wife’s fault: “What did SHE do…? This painfully affected my Sunday School experience. I first sensed a change in attitudes at Christmas time.
Our church had a customary Christmas tree up on the platform. Our Sunday school teachers invited us to give one present to another child. My name was called when we retrieved our individual presents on a Sunday during the regular church service. As I went forward to retrieve my present, I overheard one or more of my classmates asking, “Who gave HIM a present?”
Each Sunday, my isolation from the other children grew. Something happened, something hurtful was said. I left the classroom to walk home.
Mom was heading toward the church. She stopped me to say, “We have to go the other way to church.” After I related what happened in Sunday school and my intention to never return, she put her arm around me and headed back home, saying, “Then I am no longer going to church, either.”
Over the rest of my growing years, a couple of school friends would invite me to their Sunday school and church. But those few Sunday school and church attendances affected me none whatsoever.
At the end of my senior year, I met and fell in love with a girl who became my wife about 3-1/2 years later. Her mother informed me the requirement for me to be with her on Sundays was I had to attend church with her. That was an easy sacrifice. However, the church service affected me none whatsoever.
The first five years of marriage were eventful, marked by a career change, my absence from home due to out-of-town business obligations, one that lasted seven months on assignment to the other side of the world. At the end of those five years, the undersides of our furniture were festooned with Allied Van Lines moving stickers.
We decided to move back to Texas.
Sparing the reader the details, I came to the lowest point in my life, denied employment by a great company due to my hypertension.
We were running out of money and approaching a day of reckoning with our credit card companies. At this point, I could see no way out of our situation. I said to my wife, “I don’t know what to do.” She said, “We need to go to church.”
We did, and the rest of the story is even better. I was born again in August 1974. We celebrate 54 years of marriage this month of August 2023.
U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, prescribes church attendance to heal those harmed by loneliness. The good doctor says, “Go back to church.“
My Invitation To You
The Lanterns of Hope Life Group invites you to our community. Church membership is not a prerequisite. A community of loving people overcomes the negative effects of loneliness.
The benefit of joining our Life Group community is that you can become a Lantern of Hope to others. Your story is vital to someone you have never met.
I invite you to join us each Saturday evening, 7:00 to 8:15 pm, in room W304 of the Rockwall Campus of Lakepointe Church.
Do you want to know about eternal life from a Biblical point of view? I welcome you to attend my Saturday evening Life Group at the Rockwall Campus of Lakepointe Church. Join us at 7:00 pm; late arrivals are welcome.
Lakepointe Church
Rockwall Campus
Room W304
701 E. Interstate 30
Rockwall, Texas 75087
Church membership is NOT a prerequisite, all ages, married and unmarried, are welcome.
Childcare is outstanding and secure. For your convenience, use this link to preregister your children. Upon arrival, escort them to their LP Kids assigned room before joining me in room W304. See the map above.
My mission is to be a Lantern of Hope and to equip others to become Lanterns of Hope for others in these troubled times.
John White
Rockwall, Texas
John N. White 