Alone With God

Alone With God

I went to Barnes and Noble a few years ago to finish out a gift card my choir gave me. I picked up The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen. At the time, I was starting to leave Science Fiction behind. SF, as the pros call it, had been a favorite genre of mine, and I still respect it a great deal. However, I was being led in a different direction; one of spiritual enrichment.

The first section of the Nouwen book, which I still own, deals with solitude. I am an incurable early riser, and I love the early morning time with coffee, my books, breakfast, writing in my journal, or whatever I happen to be working on at the time. Ok…I confess, sometimes it includes morning tv during breakfast, then journals, books, etc.

Nouwen has some stern things to say about solitude. He says that solitude is more than just alone time. True solitude can reveal your true self. Solitude can conjure up past failures even though forgiven, current failures, and those places in our lives that we never realized were troublesome in the first place. Nouwen calls solitude “the furnace of conversion”.

Also, according to Nouwen, solitude does not include books, coffee, Cheerios, my computer, or my journals. It is only me alone wrestling with my inner self. Temptations, mind wandering, inner struggles are all there. I would call it risky. Nouwen calls it dangerous.

However, the time of quiet for me, being alone with God, is usually early in the morning. Carol is upstairs still asleep. I am typing away with my coffee close by. Clocks tick. Appliances run. Traffic zooms by on Middle Belleville Road, while I await the sunrise.

I may never get to the place of solitude where so many saints of the past left all to live alone. I do find the early morning hours a good time to get alone with God using whatever helps I need and listening to what he has to say. I love my NIV Study Bible, my Lucado, Buechner, Mother Teresa, or other devotionals, and anything else I may be reading at the time. I love the quiet time of prayer. I love to write down my thoughts, some profound, most not so much. This is a time of refreshment for me; a time to think, meditate (I almost said, ‘medicate’ — that too). It is a place where we gather new strength, receive nourishment through God’s word, prayer, and general communion with him.

If God is calling you to get alone with Him on a regular basis, then nothing is as important as that. It may be something that takes a concerted effort to make happen.

It is helpful on many levels to spend some regular time alone with God, using whatever helps you may want to include. It may require you to deliberately set some time aside, or you may find it sort of naturally like I did, with a good time becoming available as a result of other factors coming into play. Your best time may not be early in the morning, but whenever it is, set it aside. If your days are busy, it may only be a few minutes, just pondering a verse or two in your Bible. You will learn a lot about yourself, but most of all you will be partaking of the spiritual food available through Christ.

Whatever the call is, just do it.

Thanks be to God