Solitude

Introduction

Let me share with you a story of an experience of solittude that I had a few weeks ago. First things first, Hannah was on a nightshift, so I walked her to the car which is in a cark park a few minutes walk from the flat. And as I was walking home, it was a nice evening, I thought: this is a nice opportunity for me to spend some time with the Lord as I walk home. Well, you know how it is; there’s things on the street that you end up looking at, and thinking about, and that reminds you of something else… Well the next thing I knew, I was unlocking my front door after having spent the last 5 minutes staring into space and getting distracted. But that was fine. I was back home, and I had the whole evening. So I went and sat in the chair that we have in our bedroom, where there’s not many distractions. I checked the time on my phone, I still remember it was 7:58pm. And then I set my set my phone down on the dresser, and went to sit in the chair and reflect.

I really enjoyed my time, just sat there, sitting in silence and stilling my mind, just being in God’s presence. And in that time I also reflected on my own life, my walk with God, the things I have to be grateful for, and I after sitting in the silence, I jsut stayed there for a while and prayed through the things on my heart. Anyway, after a while my phone buzzed, because I’d had a text. And I thought, yeah that’s fine, I’ll check it, I’ve had some refreshing and meaningful time with God. So I got up and picked up my phone, and on the front screen, in massive letters, it said “8:02pm”. I had been resting in the presence of the Lord, for 4 minutes.

Apparently, I’d restored my soul, handed over the main issues of my life, and almost had a profound spiritual breakthrough, in less time than it took me to cook myself breakfast that morning, which, by the way, was toast.

I don’t know if you resonate with this at all. I think solitude comes much easier for some than it does for others. I think part of that comes down to our personalities. Some people can rest in God’s presence for ages, but find picking up and reading their Bible really difficult. I can spend a lot time reading my Bible, but I find it really hard to spend time in solitude with God. It takes me a lot more work. When I got the preaching rota through, I couldn’t believe that I’d been given the two spiritual disicplines of fasting and solitude, because they’re probably the two disciplines I find most difficult. But you know what, that therefore makes them the two most important for me to work on.

Being able to spend time in stillness and quiet with God is a gift for all of us, so as we reflect on solitude today its for all of us, but especially, I think, if it’s something that doesn’t come easily to us.

Jesus’ Solitude