Solitude Chapel
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So far this year, we’ve looked at the idea of discipleship from several different angles. There are certain disciplines to being a disciple of Jesus—just like there are certain disciplines to being a good student or a good athlete. Just like the word “disciple” means “learner”. The word “discipl-ine” means a way of training. In order to grow in our relationship with Christ, we must do our part. Just because our faith is a gift does not mean we just sit around and wait for God to make it stronger. A strong walk with God requires effort on our part.
In fact, you probably already know some of the disciplines to walking closer with the Lord. Can you think of any? [Prayer, reading your Bible, etc] As we practice these spiritual disciplines, we begin to become more sensitive to the small, gentle voice of the Holy Spirit.
This morning we are going to talk about a discipline that’s often ignored by our culture: solitude. It’s a fancy word that means ‘to be alone’. Before I go any further, I want to give you an example of why we would even want to practice ‘being alone with God’.
[Bang on the trash can or the bell as I talk to them]
“We are usually surrounded by so much outer noise that it is hard to truly hear our God when he is speaking to us.” Solitude “is necessary in order to move slowly from… a life filled with noisy worries to a life in which there is some free inner space where we can listen to our God and follow his guidance”. “Through a [solitude] we prevent the world from filling our lives to such an extent that there is no place left to listen” (Nouwen, 95).
Let me give you an example of when clearly God speaks and the people hear it but they don’t understand.
John 12:28-30
“28Father, glorify your name!"
Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." 29The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
30Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine.”
Notice that the audible voice of God came from heaven and people were still clueless. All of them knew something had happened. Some people thought it was a freak of nature (it thundered). Others recognized that something ‘spiritual’ had just happened but did not know what it was (an angel had spoken). And look at Jesus’ response to their comments. He said “This voice was for your benefit, not mine”. Apparently God wasn’t trying to hide his voice from the people. They were supposed to understand but something was keeping them from recognizing the truth.
God is speaking to us all the time. But if we don’t “set aside a time and a space to give him our undivided attention” we will often miss what He wants to tell us.
Since we are trying to be disciples of Jesus, let’s look at his life. Remember, if we want to be like him—to have a similar relationship with the Father and the kinds of answered prayer he did—then we need to model our lives after him.
Matt 4:1-11 before beginning his ministry, Jesus spent 40 days alone in the desert.
Matt 14:23 after feeding the 5000, Jesus went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
Mark 1:13 Following an entire day of ministry, He woke early in the morning and went to a solitary place.
Mark 1:35 Jesus departed to a lonely place to pray.
Mark 6:31 When the 12 disciples returned from their first ministry trip without him, he took them to a deserted place.
Mark 14:13 after hearing about John the Baptist’s death, He departed to a deserted place.
Luke 4:42 at daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place.
Luke 5:16 Jesus often withdrew into the wilderness.
Luke 6:12 Before Jesus chose the 12, he spent the night alone in prayer.
We don’t find this idea just in the life of Jesus. Throughout the Old Testament, we are encouraged to practice times of being quiet and alone.
Ps 46:10-11 “Be still and know that I am God”
Habakkuk 2:20 “The Lord is in his temple. Let all the earth be silent before him”
Zeph 1:7 be silent before the Lord God
Zech 2:13 be silent, all flesh, before the Lord.
There is awe and reverence in silence. We find clarity in silence. It is only when we are alone in the presence of the Lord that we begin to find our strength, security and peace. It is only when we are removed from the busyness of our daily lives, only when we stop producing that we begin to find our true identity. We have value and are considered successful not from what we do or what other people say but because we are loved by the Lord.
We might know this in our heads but it never really affects the way you live until it gets into your heart. Solitude is a tool the Lord uses to do this.
Henry Nouwen puts it like this: “As soon as we are alone, without people to talk with, books to read, TV to watch, or phone calls to make, an inner chaos opens up” (95). “When we have removed our outer distractions, we often find that our inner distractions manifest themselves to us in full force” (96). In other words, we often use our busy lives to shield us from being alone with ourselves. There could be many reasons for this. There may be as many different reasons as people in this room. But it’s not until we hear the truth of what God thinks about us that the lies of the enemy lose their hold on us.
So, what does solitude look like? First, find a place where you can be alone without distractions and not be interrupted very often. For some of you, this means you have to unplug your computer, or your TV, or your music. You may even need to put your phone in a different room. You want as much silence as possible and as little to distract yourself as possible. Take your Bible with you and a notebook. Sometimes you might sit and read or meditate on the Bible. Other times you may simple sit and listen to what God might be saying. You can even ask him questions. If you’re just beginning, I suggest starting with 10 minutes. I also suggest using a timer instead of just a clock. Otherwise, you end up looking at the clock every couple of minutes instead of focusing on the Lord.
When we first start the discipline of being alone, it may feel like we are simply wasting time. It can also be frustrating.
“One of the early Christian writers describes the first stage of solitary prayer as the experience of a man who, after years of living with open doors, suddenly decides to shut them. The visitors who used to come and enter his home start pounding on his doors, wondering why they are not allowed to enter. Only when they realize that they are not welcome do they gradually stop coming.” (96)
Once your mind becomes used to its solitude, the distractions will come less often. The less you pay attention to them, the less they will come. At first, it may be very frustrating for you. Stick with it for a couple of weeks. You may not see results for a month, but the results will come. Over time you develop an awareness of God’s presence with you and in you. The best part is that you also begin to grasp just how much God likes you.
“The discipline of solitude… is one of the most powerful disciplines in developing a prayerful life. It is a simple, though not easy, way to free us from the slavery of” who the world says we are and what the world says is important and “begin to hear the voice that makes all things new.” (97)
[All quotations from the Henry Nouwen article found in the book on Spiritual disciplines on Mr. Busch’s bookshelf at home which he cannot remember the name of at the moment. Edited by Richard Foster.]
In fact, you probably already know some of the disciplines to walking closer with the Lord. Can you think of any? [Prayer, reading your Bible, etc] As we practice these spiritual disciplines, we begin to become more sensitive to the small, gentle voice of the Holy Spirit.
This morning we are going to talk about a discipline that’s often ignored by our culture: solitude. It’s a fancy word that means ‘to be alone’. Before I go any further, I want to give you an example of why we would even want to practice ‘being alone with God’.
[Bang on the trash can or the bell as I talk to them]
“We are usually surrounded by so much outer noise that it is hard to truly hear our God when he is speaking to us.” Solitude “is necessary in order to move slowly from… a life filled with noisy worries to a life in which there is some free inner space where we can listen to our God and follow his guidance”. “Through a [solitude] we prevent the world from filling our lives to such an extent that there is no place left to listen” (Nouwen, 95).
Let me give you an example of when clearly God speaks and the people hear it but they don’t understand.
John 12:28-30
“28Father, glorify your name!"
Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." 29The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
30Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine.”
Notice that the audible voice of God came from heaven and people were still clueless. All of them knew something had happened. Some people thought it was a freak of nature (it thundered). Others recognized that something ‘spiritual’ had just happened but did not know what it was (an angel had spoken). And look at Jesus’ response to their comments. He said “This voice was for your benefit, not mine”. Apparently God wasn’t trying to hide his voice from the people. They were supposed to understand but something was keeping them from recognizing the truth.
God is speaking to us all the time. But if we don’t “set aside a time and a space to give him our undivided attention” we will often miss what He wants to tell us.
Since we are trying to be disciples of Jesus, let’s look at his life. Remember, if we want to be like him—to have a similar relationship with the Father and the kinds of answered prayer he did—then we need to model our lives after him.
Matt 4:1-11 before beginning his ministry, Jesus spent 40 days alone in the desert.
Matt 14:23 after feeding the 5000, Jesus went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
Mark 1:13 Following an entire day of ministry, He woke early in the morning and went to a solitary place.
Mark 1:35 Jesus departed to a lonely place to pray.
Mark 6:31 When the 12 disciples returned from their first ministry trip without him, he took them to a deserted place.
Mark 14:13 after hearing about John the Baptist’s death, He departed to a deserted place.
Luke 4:42 at daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place.
Luke 5:16 Jesus often withdrew into the wilderness.
Luke 6:12 Before Jesus chose the 12, he spent the night alone in prayer.
We don’t find this idea just in the life of Jesus. Throughout the Old Testament, we are encouraged to practice times of being quiet and alone.
Ps 46:10-11 “Be still and know that I am God”
Habakkuk 2:20 “The Lord is in his temple. Let all the earth be silent before him”
Zeph 1:7 be silent before the Lord God
Zech 2:13 be silent, all flesh, before the Lord.
There is awe and reverence in silence. We find clarity in silence. It is only when we are alone in the presence of the Lord that we begin to find our strength, security and peace. It is only when we are removed from the busyness of our daily lives, only when we stop producing that we begin to find our true identity. We have value and are considered successful not from what we do or what other people say but because we are loved by the Lord.
We might know this in our heads but it never really affects the way you live until it gets into your heart. Solitude is a tool the Lord uses to do this.
Henry Nouwen puts it like this: “As soon as we are alone, without people to talk with, books to read, TV to watch, or phone calls to make, an inner chaos opens up” (95). “When we have removed our outer distractions, we often find that our inner distractions manifest themselves to us in full force” (96). In other words, we often use our busy lives to shield us from being alone with ourselves. There could be many reasons for this. There may be as many different reasons as people in this room. But it’s not until we hear the truth of what God thinks about us that the lies of the enemy lose their hold on us.
So, what does solitude look like? First, find a place where you can be alone without distractions and not be interrupted very often. For some of you, this means you have to unplug your computer, or your TV, or your music. You may even need to put your phone in a different room. You want as much silence as possible and as little to distract yourself as possible. Take your Bible with you and a notebook. Sometimes you might sit and read or meditate on the Bible. Other times you may simple sit and listen to what God might be saying. You can even ask him questions. If you’re just beginning, I suggest starting with 10 minutes. I also suggest using a timer instead of just a clock. Otherwise, you end up looking at the clock every couple of minutes instead of focusing on the Lord.
When we first start the discipline of being alone, it may feel like we are simply wasting time. It can also be frustrating.
“One of the early Christian writers describes the first stage of solitary prayer as the experience of a man who, after years of living with open doors, suddenly decides to shut them. The visitors who used to come and enter his home start pounding on his doors, wondering why they are not allowed to enter. Only when they realize that they are not welcome do they gradually stop coming.” (96)
Once your mind becomes used to its solitude, the distractions will come less often. The less you pay attention to them, the less they will come. At first, it may be very frustrating for you. Stick with it for a couple of weeks. You may not see results for a month, but the results will come. Over time you develop an awareness of God’s presence with you and in you. The best part is that you also begin to grasp just how much God likes you.
“The discipline of solitude… is one of the most powerful disciplines in developing a prayerful life. It is a simple, though not easy, way to free us from the slavery of” who the world says we are and what the world says is important and “begin to hear the voice that makes all things new.” (97)
[All quotations from the Henry Nouwen article found in the book on Spiritual disciplines on Mr. Busch’s bookshelf at home which he cannot remember the name of at the moment. Edited by Richard Foster.]
