Loneliness and Belonging: A Conversation with Sarah Westfall

Something that I have often struggled with as an adult is making new friends. It’s easier when you’re younger and in school. You see your classmates every day or kids from youth group each week. You’re given opportunities to interact and see if there is someone kind of like you that you could be friends with. Talk with. Hang out with.

But as an adult, time for friendships seems more limited. While we, of course, have others at church or Bible study we can turn to for fellowship and prayer, it still feels hard sometimes to find those to simply do life with.

And so we feel lonely. Left out. Like we don’t belong.

And that is part of what drew me to Sarah Westfall’s book, The Way of Belonging (Amazon affiliate link).

Sarah has so beautifully written about this feeling of loneliness and how to find a way to belong—or, rather, to make space for others to feel welcome and safe.

Some of my favorite questions she asks in her book are these: “What makes me afraid to go deeper? What am I holding back from my closest relationships? What am I trying to protect?”

How would you answer those?

Sarah writes on Substack and hosts her own podcast, both called Human Together. Community, belonging, and doing life together are themes she writes about on a regular basis. We discovered she lives about 30 miles away from me, and I’m honored to share this conversation we had about her book. Imagine you’re sitting down with us as we ask some honest questions about what it looks like to live in community with others.

[Interview]

RELATED EPISODES + RESOURCES:

• Sarah Westfall’s website
• Sarah’s book, The Way of Belonging (Amazon affiliate link)
• Episode 66: [Written Spiritual Direction Session] Loneliness

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