Alone (Daily Encouragement Series)
“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he (Jesus) departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” – Mark 1:35
One of the most challenging aspects of this pandemic is being isolated from others. As Christians we believe we were made to function in community and with people, so when we can’t, “it’s not good” (Genesis 1:18). And personally, I enjoy and gain life from being around and doing things with others. But on the flip side, myself and our culture are not very good at being alone. Being quiet. Being with God. Solitude. Henri Nouwen points out the issue here:
“As long as we are trying to run away from our loneliness we are constantly looking for distractions with the inexhaustible need to be entertained and kept busy. We become the passive victims of a world asking for our idolizing attention. We become dependent on the shifting chain of events leading us into quick changes of mood, capricious behavior and, at times, revengeful violence. Then our life becomes a spastic and often destructive sequence of actions and reactions pulling us away from our inner selves.” (from “Reaching Out – The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life”)
We can feel “lonely” and to avoid it we can make life a “spastic” chain of events to distract ourselves from our loneliness. Learning to be “alone” will actually allow us to BETTER function with and love people. It will allow us to not be dependent on the “shifting chain of events” of this world to avoid loneliness.
Nouwen put it this way: Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life…We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him.
John Ortberg put it this way: Solitude is the one place where we can gain freedom from the forces of society that will otherwise relentlessly mold us.
Just as Jesus so often did, maybe this is a time where we can grow and cultivate solitude in our lives. To “be with God” and “listen to Him” and “follow Him” as opposed to being tossed around by the “forces of society that will otherwise relentlessly mold us.”
A full sermon on Solitude here: https://cpjupiter.com/sermons/sacred-pace_solitude/