AloneSample

THE GOOD KIND OF LONELINESS

Let me tell you something that may sound crazy: loneliness is not ALL bad…at least not all the time. There’s actually a spiritual practice that we tend to overlook in our modern society called solitude. In fact, it’s something we see Jesus model for us. In Luke 5:16, it tells us: But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Jesus had people around him everywhere…his 12 disciples, a group of maybe 100 other consistent followers, and crowds of 1,000s who would show up to hear him teach. Jesus had people he loved and people who loved him in his life pretty much all the time. But, he still found it necessary to go and be intentionally lonely sometimes. 

Now, this was not just to catch a breather or because one of his disciples was annoying him. No, this was intentional time alone…he wanted to pray. Jesus needed consistent time to get away from everybody and just spend some time with God, one-on-one. If even Jesus needed solitude from time to time, we definitely do. And the strange beauty we can find in this time of quarantine is that there is more opportunity than ever to practice solitude.

There is the potential right now to have less distractions and fewer demands on your time…so use it. Go into your room, shut off everything that could beep or alert or distract, and just be still in the lonely quiet and pray. Start small…try it for five minutes. I promise, the first time you do it, five minutes will seem like forever. But, if you’ll consistently make this a part of your routine, you’ll start to crave these moments of solitude where it’s just you and God. Even when this whole mess is over and life goes back to normal, I bet you’ll find yourself craving some moments of solitude to just be alone with God.