Nearing the end of the first full week of Lent, I am blessed and challenged by this thought:
In the practice of Solitude is God’s invitation to “come sit with Me”.
Solitude does take practice. It is noisy in the world. I make it noisy by adding commitments and tasks that take up my time for solitude. I excuse away the call to “Come away by yourself and rest” because I am busy doing things…for Jesus right?
He doesn’t need me to do anything. He wants me to be with Him. Simply be.
Alone with Him. In Solitude. *sigh* The Creator and Sustainer of Life wants me to be with Him. That is all. Just be.
I am blessed and challenged.
The challenge comes in the letting go of my routine, my to do list, my false source and sense of value. The challenge is to accept that time alone with God, just hanging out with Him, is of primary value.
That Solitude is valuable. That Solitude, time apart from the world, is valuable to God.
Solitude takes practice. For me, years of practice. (I am a slow learner). I first came in contact with the idea of spending time alone with God without an agenda, without my never ending prayer request list, 5 years after I began walking with Christ. In 1986. This idea of just meeting with Jesus came through the form of a tiny booklet, My Heart Christ’s Home, by Robert Boyd Munger. It is an allegory using the illustration of your life and heart as Christ’s new home based on the Truth that Christ lives in us when we have accepted Him as Savior and Lord.
If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend it!
This empty chair is symbolic for me. There is another one, to the right of it, where I sit. Every morning when I am home, I get up, get my coffee and sit in my chair to have coffee with Jesus. My google calendar says that “Coffee with Jesus” as a marked off hour at the beginning of each day. I love my time sitting with an empty chair. Just hanging out with Jesus is getting easier; not always asking “please fix this broken relationship” or “please change me in this attitude” but simply enjoying the silence and focusing on the reality of His Presence.
Solitude takes practice. This season of Lent is the perfect time to practice slowing down, making space in your day, your mind, your heart, to be alone with Jesus.
Are you avoiding this? What is keeping you from sitting?
Hush. Listen well. The Chair is not Empty.