Solo lunches
Have you ever gone through a period during which you had lunch by yourself most of the time. Last year, around this period, I went for solo lunches for several (say 10+?) weeks. At the start, it felt more like a torture than anything, but over time, I gained some interesting "rewards".
This was the period after my spiritual moments from the May Prayer Meeting 2005 to Church Camp 2005. Partly as a testing of my faith and partly learning to overcome my loneliness, I decided to have these solo lunches. What I did was that after 2nd service ended, I would spend some time chatting with the rest, then after a while I would just walk off on my own to have lunch. I was sort of trusting God to provide me with people to eat with, or I could just have lunch on my own remembering that God is with me.
At the start, having to eat alone when almost everyone else in church was eating with friends didn't feel good. Most times, I would walk around and see where the rest are (often in their usual groups) before I decide where to eat alone. It felt quite stupid at times and sometimes I did feel like I was torturing myself by doing this. However, over time, I gained emotional strength, and eventually eating alone didn't matter at all.
Yet, during this period, I didn't eat alone every week. There were some times when God provided people for me to eat with, which was quite encouraging for me. I remember a number of times when I had settled down and was eating by myself, a group of church people would walk by outside the restaurant, look in and be surprised to see me eating by myself (often much to my surprise too in unexpectedly seeing them). A few times, this also allowed me to eat with groups that I had never eaten with before (and it's quite unlikely I'll ever get to eat with these same groups), which is probably one of the unexpected rewards I gained from those few weeks.
It was an enriching experience for me, and I admit that by putting myself through this, I gained more than I had asked for. Maybe I will try this again sometime...
This was the period after my spiritual moments from the May Prayer Meeting 2005 to Church Camp 2005. Partly as a testing of my faith and partly learning to overcome my loneliness, I decided to have these solo lunches. What I did was that after 2nd service ended, I would spend some time chatting with the rest, then after a while I would just walk off on my own to have lunch. I was sort of trusting God to provide me with people to eat with, or I could just have lunch on my own remembering that God is with me.
At the start, having to eat alone when almost everyone else in church was eating with friends didn't feel good. Most times, I would walk around and see where the rest are (often in their usual groups) before I decide where to eat alone. It felt quite stupid at times and sometimes I did feel like I was torturing myself by doing this. However, over time, I gained emotional strength, and eventually eating alone didn't matter at all.
Yet, during this period, I didn't eat alone every week. There were some times when God provided people for me to eat with, which was quite encouraging for me. I remember a number of times when I had settled down and was eating by myself, a group of church people would walk by outside the restaurant, look in and be surprised to see me eating by myself (often much to my surprise too in unexpectedly seeing them). A few times, this also allowed me to eat with groups that I had never eaten with before (and it's quite unlikely I'll ever get to eat with these same groups), which is probably one of the unexpected rewards I gained from those few weeks.
It was an enriching experience for me, and I admit that by putting myself through this, I gained more than I had asked for. Maybe I will try this again sometime...
posted by Guangrong at
11:10 pm
