Saturday, November 20, 2010

The Importance of Solitude

I recently spent some time reading about the spiritual discipline of solitude and I wanted to share with you all a little bit about what I am learning by reading the book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life.

To tell you the truth, when I think of the word ‘solitude’ my mind immediately travels to negative memories. I think of feeling lonely. Without friends.  Without family nearby.

Growing up in a Western society where we are all encouraged to become comfortable with noise and crowds, the thought of solitude and even silence can seem a bit daunting. However, I have been learning that my connotations of the word ‘solitude’ are very different from the kind of solitude God call us to.

As a matter of fact, Jesus himself practiced solitude!

Mark 1:35
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

Matthew 14:23
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

Luke 4:42
At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.

What is the point of solitude? A couple of things come to mind, the one that speaks loudest to me is: to pray and to hear the voice of God. People like Elijah, Habakkuk and Paul stepped away from their daily routines to be able to hear the voice of heaven better. While one does not need to be far away from their routines in order to hear God, I have found that many times life can get so loud (literally and figuratively) that I cannot focus on what really matters. As a matter of fact, life can be loud even when I am alone.

Donald S. Whitney writes:
“Many of us need to realize the addiction we have to noise. It’s one thing to listen to the television, tape player, or radio while ironing or doing other chores, but it’s another thing habitually to turn one of these on immediately upon entering a room just to have sound. Even worse is to feel that it’s necessary to have background noise during Bible intake or prayer. I believe that convenience of sound has contributed to the spiritual shallowness of contemporary western Christianity. The advent of affordable, portable sound systems, for instance, has been a mixed blessing. The negative side is that now we don’t have to go anywhere without human voices. As a result we are less frequently alone with our own thoughts and God’s voices…”

How convicting this is to me! As a person who does not like to be alone, I have used music to distract the brain – to fool myself into thinking that I am not alone. However, I have hardly ever taken my time alone to “gaze on Christ with the eyes of my soul” (Tozer). This intimate time with God is not only precious, but it is needed! Time alone with our creator tends to air out the mind and iron out the wrinkles of the soul. It brings us back to our purpose. It brings us back to focus. It brings us back to abundant life.

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