More Thoughts on Solitude (RJD #7)

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness

to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty

days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came

and ministered unto him.” Matthew 4:1-2, 11 (KJV)

(I continue my thoughts on Solitude. As a writer, I need to have solitude in order to be able to think, plan, and create. As a Christian believer, I have to spend time alone with God so I can grow to be more like Him.) These thoughts come from February 8 and 9, 1997.

(2/08/) Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks of solitude in a way I find novel. “If you refuse to be alone you are rejecting Christ’s call on your life.”

God calls us to be His; he moulds us into the person He wants us to be. I have friends who are also Christ’s children but His call on their lives can be different than His call on mine. Christ calls each of us as individuals; He equips us as He wishes us to be. God forms us in the womb by ourselves; (unless we were part of a multiple birth.) He calls each of us to repentance alone and, most of the time, the Lord calls us to heaven one at a time. Even in the events where multiple fatalities occur, I believe he interacts with each one separately.

I find it interesting that the older I get the more comfortable I am with being by myself, yet at times I don’t care to be alone. But that seems the way we learn to be comfortable with solitude. Jesus used His being alone the best of anyone I know of—He prayed.

(2/09/) Henri Nowen writes, “In solitude we can slowly unmask the illusion of our possessiveness and discovery in the center of our own self that we are not what we can conquer but what is given to us.” I find this to be a powerful thought. What I gather from this is that I am not made to be who I am by God to be victorious over my shortcomings by myself. But God make me as I am to allow Him to work out work out those frailties of who I am.

In the early 1980’s, I used to get rattled, upset and even frustrated very easily. I began hearing the word, ‘trust.’ Every time I’d see a passage of scripture that contained that word, it looked like this: Trust. I believe God was speaking to me at that time.

However, I really didn’t fully listen as I should have. I went through a phase where I realized I lost a considerable amount of energy each time I got angry. A while later, I discovered Proverbs 3:4-5 “Trust in the Lord your God, with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” God doesn’t give up on refining us; He sometimes lets us go until we mess up. He, then, accepts our apology and allows us to grow from the experience.

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