Solitude
It was a gorgeous Sunday morning in the Garden of the Gods. In Colorado Springs on business, I decided to attend God’s “church.” The sky was brilliant blue, the red sandstone monoliths blazed in the sun, the junipers were green and fragrant, and Pike’s Peak glimmered cool purple in the distance.
I sat quietly on a rock, drifting between prayer and just being, when my worship was interrupted by a sound. At first it was as distant as a bee’s buzz, but too quickly it wound its way on the hiking trail and was upon me. It was a human, on a cell phone, talking business, on Sunday morning, in the Garden of the Gods . . . for God’s sake!
Solitude. For those who seek it and are fortunate enough to find it, it’s hard to hold onto. And for those who don’t understand it and don’t desire it, well, they’re missing the joy of an intimate relationship with God.
God wants our attention, and not just in church. God doesn’t want us to be like Jesus just in our actions; he wants us to be like Jesus in our innermost spirit. He wants to share with us his true nature so we can understand our own true nature. That can’t happen when we spend every waking moment chasing worldly goals.
We need to turn our backs on our physical beings and tend to our spiritual beings by engaging in solitude. When Jesus had something important to teach his disciples, he took them away from the crowds and the ruckus of life. “When he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything” (Mark 4:34).
Likewise, Jesus wants to be alone with us. “Jesus cannot teach us anything until we quiet all our intellectual questions and get alone with him,” said writer and theologian Oswald Chambers.
Some people are afraid to be alone, or it makes them uncomfortable. Some won’t let themselves be still or quiet because they’ve bought the notion that being busy is virtuous. If there is a reason to fear solitude, it is that we may discover that separated from all our “stuff,” we are empty and without purpose. But until we are emptied of the trivial, we can’t be filled with the meaningful. Solitude allows this to happen.
This week especially, seek some time alone.