We Weren't Meant to Suffer Alone

In her funny, off-beat memoir, journalist and writer Heather Havrilesky reminds us how community (whether in a family or a church family) implies carrying ...

Intervention for Anorexic Woman at Gym

At the height of her eating disorder, strangers on the streets of Nashville would stop Lauryn Lax to tell her to "Go eat a cheeseburger" or ...

Social Isolation Crushes Body, Brain, and Spirit

For two of his five years in a Vietnamese POW camp, Senator John McCain was locked in a tiny isolation cell, cut off from all human contact. He was beaten ...

Isolation Can Make Us Ill or Dead

Recent research studies show how much we crave community and friendship. A study of 3,000 women with breast cancer found that those with a large network ...

Men Refuse to Give Up on Missing Friend

Stephen Mansfield tells a true story about a church that had an incredible ministry to men. For years the driving force behind the men's ministry ...

Jerry Seinfeld on Making Friends

When you're in your thirties it's very hard to make a new friend. Whatever the group is that you've got now that's who you're going ...

Pot, Selfies, and Facebook—Welcome to the New Individualism

After analyzing a new Pew survey, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat claims that we're in a new and deeper "age of individualism." In ...

Elephants Are Good at Comforting Others. Are We?

A story in the New York Times highlights a recent study, showing that elephants are adept at recognizing when another elephant is in emotional distress. ...

The Power of Community in an AA Group

Gordon MacDonald shares the following story about visiting a small group of men and women affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. MacDonald said that he ...

We Avoid Dealing with Sexual Lust

John Freeman writes in an article titled: "Sex and the Silence of the Church”:

In today's highly-charged sexual culture, almost no one is ...