Solitude

Psalm 62, Isaiah 30:15, Acts 10:9-10

When I was a freshman in high school I moved to a new school and knew no one. I remember having no one to sit with at lunch, so for the first week of school I sat in the bathroom or pretended to be fixing my hair in the mirror for the whole half hour. I was lonely. This is not what God is asking of us when we spend time alone in solitude with Him. 

Solitude does not mean we deprive ourselves of time spent with friends if we are extraverted and it also does not mean spending unhealthy lengthy periods of time alone if we are introverted. In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard J. Foster writes, “We can cultivate an inner solitude and silence that sets us free from loneliness and fear. Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment.” Being in a crowd or being alone has little to do with the state of solitude. It is the absence of fear of being alone and fear of being with people, but simply resting in God’s presence and placing our identity confidently in Him.

Jesus practiced this inner solitude of a heart connected to the Father, but also an outward solitude. Before He chose His twelve disciples He spent time away praying day and night (Luke 6:12). When He heard of His cousin John’s death, He “withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart” (Matthew 14:13). And in Mark 6:31 after a long day of work, Jesus asked his disciples to “come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.” Jesus both modeled living in solitude and commanded it of His disciples. 

This is important for us to experience as well. To be more like Jesus is to practice solitude as He did. And to achieve this solitude we must also experience silence. How easy is it for us to play a podcast while we are working or to have music playing while driving in the car? We seem to always have some kind of background noise, because we are uncomfortable with the silence. In solitude and silence we get to sit in God’s peace and presence and listen to Him speak to us. Next time you wake up early try sitting in silence, not touching your phone and spending time with the Lord. Or maybe try going for a walk and marvel at the looks, sounds, and smells of nature with no headphones in. Or while driving to work or school, turn off the radio and sit silently with the Lord. 

This can be a hard thing to achieve with the distractions of the world, but with practice we can become disciplined in it. Ecclesiastes 3:7 says that there is “a time to keep silence and a time to speak.” We don’t always have to be speaking to the Father in these moments, but we can be silent and listen.

May we experience solitude with the Father just as Jesus modeled.