What Does Spiritual Maturity Look Like?

Resistance to loneliness as a spiritual concept may have to do with the lack of research clarity around social isolation as opposed to the FEELING of loneliness. It turns out that deep dives into the data around loneliness points out correlation but not causation.

These mega data dumps indicate that lonely people often live shorter lives. But that does not mean it is the cause. Maybe people in poor health have less energy or inclination to maintain contact with others. Perhaps these folks are dying of poor health and loneliness is a consequence of their disease not the cause of their death.

Take for example a 2012 study that reports that Denmark’s inhabitants are among the happiest and longest living populations in the world. And guess what? They have a high rate of loneliness (30% according to Keming Yang’s book Loneliness: A Social Problem).

Now, why does this matter?

Because if we identify loneliness as a problem, we might seek to solve it with magical potions and scary warnings to NOT BE LONELY. And what if we “cure” loneliness? And what if “loneliness” is a necessary component of developing maturity? Oops. That would be a bit of a snafu. We might end up with an entirely different sort of problem with even fewer people to serve as spiritual guides for souls interested in seeking after a faithful life. More personally, we might be blaming our loneliness on our spiritual malaise instead of taking the time to inquire about what spiritual fulfillment means, how it really feels, what thoughts we actually have along the way and how it changes our behaviors. Maybe, I am suggesting, spiritual maturity looks wildly different than we ever considered.

At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.

Luke 4:42 NIV