The Spiritual Disciplines: Solitude…

September 11, 2007 | 12:00 AM

Solitude.

I’m a pretty introverted guy as it is.  I can be outgoing, but I value silence and solitude very much.  I remember being somewhere deep in the Canadian Rockies this summer, alone, breathing in deep breaths of crisp, cool air.  Alone, but not alone.  Completely in awe of the Creator of the universe.  Not some top being in a hierarchy of beings, but THE Being.  The one named I AM.  God.

The discipline of solitude seems a little misleading.  We’re never really alone.  And that, I think, is what solitude is about.  Being physically alone, but knowing that God is there.  Like a cosmic date with the Creator of everything.  That might be why I prefer to find my solitude in nature.  I think if what I see is so beautiful, so creative, then how much more beautiful and creative is the One who made it.   That’s one aspect of solitude.  Taking time to separate myself from the noise and busyness of the world to be alone with the one I call Father.

There’s another aspect to solitude.  The kind where Moses spends 40 years wandering in the desert.  The kind where Paul spends 7 years in the wilderness.  A time when we are forced to become disciplined in every aspect of our lives.  A time when we are compelled to rely wholly and solely on God to give us the strength to endure.  Intense solitary confinement, without confinement.  I’m not sure how this is really practiced these days.  But it seems appropriate that we should have times of solitude that teach us reliance upon God alone.

I guess it all makes me wonder what it was like… really like… for Jesus during that 40 day fast in the Judean wilderness.  Probably a little of both aspects.  Solitude for discipline; solitude for worship.

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Posted in Christianity, Life, Spiritual Disciplines Series