Ministering to the Young Single Adult - Elmer Towns

themselves lonely, rejected, unmarried and without all the money they want or need.First, the young single adult needs to know that others are going through the sameproblems. Next, he should realize the cause of these problems transition fromadolescence into adulthood. Finally, he should know there are solutions to theseproblems.II. LONELINESSAnother great problem facing the young single adult is loneliness. Some of thefollowing quotations express the life of a single adult.There comes a time when you want somebody all your own.You’re just tired of being alone. Tired of going around with one personafter another without anything seeming to be serious. You begin to wonderif you are ever going to get married, and so forth, and then it gets prettylonely. But it’s not so much a loneliness from lack of friends, but an innerkind of loneliness . 3The life of the young single adult is filled with clothes, travel, job and freedom.He is in the transition period from the home ties of adolescence to the freedom ofadulthood. Freedom, material possessions and independence make up life. Yet thesethings wear thin. Life finds deep meaning in close relationships. Every person needs aclose friend to bring out his best. There is no closer friend than a mate in marriage.Roommates can be lasting friends, but the intimacy provided in marriage is usuallymissed by the young single adult.Loneliness exists in the life of a single adult. In one sense we can quote the wordsof Sartre, “Man was not born to share in hatred but in love.” Much of life is spent insearching for “the one other,” whether that “one other” be a close friend of the same sexor a potential marriage partner.When I feel lonely, I feel that there is no one I can talk to who willrealize that I am me. So there is not much use doing anything worthwhileif no one cares. Loneliness takes the heart out of much that we would do.When I’m lonely I feel purposeless, tired, confused, weak and trapped. Ipicture myself as caught in a hard shell from which I speak in hollowtones. There is an opening through which I reach out my hands to graspfood, say words, and occasionally grasp quickly the hand of another.When I feel I’m peeking out desperately from the shell-then I feel lonely. 4The problem of loneliness is especially acute among single adults in city life. TheChicago Daily News told of the loneliness of the young single adult living in Chicago:City living is another enemy of Dan Cupid.