Solitude...

Leading a class on wednesday nights called "Celebrating the Disciplines". This week, we are celebrating the discipline of solitude. Wanted to share a few thoughts that might encourage us toward a deeper walk with God. This is taken from Richard Foster's "Celebration of Discipline".
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Henri Nouwen has noted that “without solitude it is virtually impossible to lead a spiritual life.” Why is this so? Because, in solitude, we are freed from our bondage to people and our inner compulsions, and we are freed to love God and know compassion for others.

To enter solitude, we must disregard what others think of us. Who will understand this call to aloneness? Even our closest friends will see it as a terrible waste of precious time and as rather selfish and self-centered. But, oh, what liberty is released in our hearts when we let go of the opinions of others! The less we are mesmerized by human voices, the more we are able to hear the divine voice. The less we are bound by other’s expectations, the more we are open to God’s expectations.

But, in solitude, we die not only to others but also to ourselves. To be sure, at first we thought solitude was a way to recharge our batteries in order to enter life’s many competitions with new vigor and strength. In time, however, we found that solitude did not give us power to win the rat race; on the contrary, it taught us to ignore the struggle altogether. Slowly, we found ourselves letting go of our inner compulsions to win and our frantic effort to attain. In the stillness, our false, busy selves were unmasked and seen for the imposters they truly are.

It is out of our liberation from others and self that our ears become open to hear and our eyes unveiled to see the goodness of God. We can love God because we do not have to love the world. Through our solitude, an open inner space has been created through which God finds us. In solitude, we experience a second (and third, and fourth, and fifth…) conversion. In a deeper more profound way, we turn from the idols of the marketplace to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God takes this “useless” Discipline, this “wasted time,” to make us His friend.

A happy by-product of becoming the friend of God is an increased compassion for others. Once we have peered into the abyss of our own vanity, we can never again look at the struggles of others in condescending superiority. Once we have faced the demons of despair in our own aloneness, we can never again pass off lightly the quiet depression and sad loneliness of those we meet. We become one with all who hurt and are afraid. We are free to give them the greatest gift we possess—the gift of ourselves.