Silence and Solitude Part 3

Please refer back to Part 1 before you go on to read this section.

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Part 3


Understanding Silence and Solitude


Silence and solitude is fasting from people and noise for a prescribed time to connect with God and replenish the soul. The opposite of solitude is isolation, where someone is burned out and goes into survival mode by disappearing. Solitude is goldy, isolation is deadly, and if we don't enjoy the former we'll wind up pursuing the latter.


Despite the constant pressures upon his time from family, friends, and fans, Jesus' own life was marked by ongoing times of solitude. The following verses speak of how Jesus often pracited the spititual disciplne of solitude:

• "And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone." (Matt. 14:23)
• "And he said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat." (Mark 6:31)
• "And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place." (Luke 4:42)
• "But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray." (Luke 5:16)

Furthermore, as we study Scripture we see that Jesus used solitude for a multitude of purposes. Following his baptism, Jesus spent forty days in solitude preparing for his public ministry (Matt. 4:1-11). After his cousin, John the Baptizer, was beheaded, Jesus spent time alone to mourn (Matt. 14:12-13). Jesus also used times of solitude as occasions for intense and focused prayer (Matt. 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16). Jesus specifically used solitude as an opportunity to pray and seek the Father's will before choosing the twelve disciples (Luke 6:12). In addition, Jesus used solitude to rest after a hard day of work (Mark 6:31). Finally, knowing he was soon to be crucified, Jesus spent time alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, coming to grips with the painful obedience that was required of him (Mark 26:36-46 [It is actually Matt. 26:36-46]).


Other biblical figures also used solitude for a litany of purposes. Moses spent time alone on the mountain with God in order to receive a word from God, namely the ten Commandments (Exodus 19-20). Isaiah was both saved and sustained by God through his times of solitude with the Lord (Isa. 30:15) In Psalm 62:1-2, 5 David says that in solitude God calmed his fears and encouraged this soul. Paul as well spent some three years in varying degrees of solitude being prepared by the Lord for ministry, according to Galatians 1:17-19.


Clearly, time alone with God serves innumerable good purposes in our lives. Therefore, to help you consider how to enjoy purposeful times of solitude, I would encourage the following. One, you may need to simply schedule a day of solitude to ensure that this is a regular part of your spiritual life. I do this at least one day a month and find it to be the most important and refreshing part of my life; it enables me to function in the other areas of my life because it helps me remain continually connected to Jesus. Two, find a place where you like to go. This may mean that  you spend a day in God's creation hiking or simply resting. Three, if you  are a parent, this may mean that you have to get up early or stay up late to get some time to yourself at home.


There are many things you can do during your periods of solitude, including:

1. Nothing
2. Meditate on a short section of Scripture
3. Rest
4. Read long sections of Scripture
5. Pray, including a prayer-walk/hike/bike
6. Read a good book
7. Journal

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Wow, the first part was very much more relevant to me this time around that when I first read these. I have to admit and repent of yesterday. It seems like the whole day was a waste. I was lazy all day long. I got up and I was lazy. I sat around and played games on my computer from the time I got up to the time I had to head out, which was utterly lazy. At work, I was lazy and didn't really want to do things very well or to the glory of God. I didn't want to do anything to the best ability that I could. Small insignificant things would irritate me because it meant that I had to work harder. I just wanted to be lazy. Even after work, I had seen that I was completely lazy about it and I was still lazy after work. I did nothing productive at all. I probably could come up with many different verses about not being lazy. Here is one that I have memorized because of the things I do in ministry. Proverbs 22:29, "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men." Be excellent at what you do, and don't be lazy about it! I think I was searching for isolation as I didn't want to do anything with anyone. And that is not me at all, I thrive off of other people.



As this is something that I have never really studied, seeing Jesus and all these different people in the Bible has a different impact now that I read them again. I can see that they thrived off of their times with God. They were rejuvenated and as David says, he put his hope in the Lord. I don't think that I do that very often. Most times I try and do this silence and solitude thing, I am looking forward to hanging out with people again. I need to change in how I think about these times. They are a time to seek God and to put my hope in him.


I would be careful about some of the things that Mark says you can do. I would abstain from doing nothing. I can't remember or find the exact verse but I believe that it says something to the extent of, idle hands brings about sin. So I would be careful to do nothing. I did that yesterday and it did not bring about any good. I would be careful of what you think rest is as well. Often times I rest by doing nothing, or by sleeping for longer than I should, or even by hanging out with people when I should be off by myself. Make sure you rest in God and not in things of this world.

Silence and Solitude Part 2

Please refer back to Part 1 before you go on to read this section.

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Part 2

Organizing a Silence and Solitude Day

Four Ways to Change Your Life

1. Heart change - conviction from God and repentance from you
2. Study - research and fact-finding for how to change your life, which includes reading the Bible and other books, speaking with people you know who have wisdom, etc.
3. Plan - ongoing, detailed, and prayerful life organization
4. Action - working your plan and making changes as life requires:

Moleskine - always keep a journal like this nearby to jot notes, thoughts and convictions in
Journaling - use your laptop to gather the scattered ideas in your Moleskine and prayerfully and carefully add to and consider them
Calendar - take action items from you silence and solitude day and put them on the calendar, as without being officially planned, nothing ever gets done to completion


Most people are good at one or two of these steps. Some have a heart to change and do their homework but do not make a plan and take action to change thier life. Others have plans and action but are religiously just doing duties because they have not experienced heart change from God. Others move from heart change to action without research and a plan; they mean well but the make their life (e.g., health, finances, relationships) worse.


Take some time and be honest with yourself. List each of these steps in order from the one you are strongest at the one you are the weakest at.


Where is your life getting stuck and what can you do to grow where you are weak? Who do you need to talk to and learn from? What do you need to repent of?


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So here is my list in order from strongest to weakest: 2, 1, 3, 4. And even then I am not very good at 2 or 1. I actually like journaling. I find that it is easier to get all of my thoughts on paper where I can see them in front of me instead of trying to keep them all sorted out in my mind. The problem that I have is that I often just don't find the time to journal. I think I am going to set a specific time each day to even just write that I don't have time to write much currently, but at least keep a journal going. That way I can see where God has worked in my life and what prayers he has answered.

Silence and Solitude Part 1

I am just going to give a preface before I dive into this. So far, this study has been good for me and I figured that I would share it with all of you as well. It is a five part series and I have gotten through part 3 so far. It is from Mark Driscoll and I don't know where the brother who got this for me, got it from. So I will retype it for you and remember, this is from Mark Driscoll...not me. At the end, I will give you my thoughts and how I see my life with the context of each section.


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Part 1

Organizing a Silence and Solitude Day

I am an introvert who is contemplative. This means I crave and desperately need silence, solitude, study, prayer, and journaling because the Holy Spirit uses these moments to connect me to Jesus that I might be more like him. For those like me, organizing days for silence and solitude may come rather naturally. But for those who are extroverted and active, the people and tasks in their mind and life can keep them from having regular and productive time to fast from noise and people and to hear from God, speak to god, and be with God.


So, this blog is the first in a series that will help you organize a silence and solitude day. The series of blogs will culminate in a lengthy template I use to organize my own silence and solitude days. I shared this document with the Mars Hill staff and so many friends on Facebook and Twitter asked for it after hearing about it that I decided to write it up in brief form and give it away in hopes of being helpful.



Four Ways to Live Your Life



In his book Leading On Empty, Wayne Cordeiro says that there are only four ways to live your life:

1. Reaction - passively dominated by urgencies and pushy people
2. Conformity - succumbing to the fear of man and just being and doing what everyone else wants, which is not necessarily following God's will of you personally
3. Independence - nonconforming rebellion in the name of freedom, marked by doing only what you want and ignoring godly authority over you
4. Intentionality - reverse-engineering your life and living it prayerfully and putposefully, journalling your thoughts throughout the day, and using silence and solitude to hear from God and organize your life.

Whis one of these four most typifies you? Is your life a frazzled mess because you are in perpetual reation mode? Have you not really even deeply pondered God's will for your life but just done what you were told by other people?


Are you the sort of person who is defiant, independent, and self-reliant? Or, do you regularly (e.g., at least one hour a week and one day a month) get silence and solitude with God to work on your life before you work in it?


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Now, back to what I think, I am very much the "extroverted and active, the people and tasks in their mind and life can keep them from having regular and productive time to fast from noise and people and to hear from God, speak to god, and be with God." I'll be honest and say that I don't get regular times in the word and many times, I just don't feel like it because I would much rather spend it with other people. People are what rejuvenate me, not being alone. Out of all of the ways that it says we live our life, I like number 4 the best and pray that I might do that more.

I feel like I am a person that is very much in the reaction mode, maybe not so much the pushy part but definitely the reaction part. Always running from one thing to the next, trying to manage everything that I am doing, I am a micro-manager. I would tend to say, most guys are like this, that they are in the reaction mode. When I see something wrong, my first thought is how do I fix it. And so, I am always trying to figure out how to fix things. And many times I am not the best at it and I have to let it go and let God take care of it. I pray that God would change me to make me a person that loves his word and longs for times with him.

This is why...

This is taken directly from our church news letter and this is exactly why I run this race. There is not much more that brings me more joy than seeing someones life change this dramatically! This story is especially close to me as he is on my discipleship team and although I have heard and read the story many times, it still brings me to tears because of the huge change in his life.



New Faith: Taking the plunge
Jumping from Atheism to Christianity
By Chris Neal

In September, during a D-Team campout, I stood at the edge of a 12-foot cliff along the Poudre River, contemplating if I would make the plunge from atheism to Christianity. 

I'm a 20-year-old student at CSU. No one in my immediate family is religious; I grew up thinking Noah and the ark was a fairy tale, and we only went to church on Christmas Eve. I started hanging out with a D-Team two years ago, and they convinced me to start going to the Rock last year.

On November 6th, after the Rock, I started talking to Chris Klumph, and he asked when I'd been saved. I told him that I wasn't yet, so he asked me where I was at spiritually. I told him that over the last couple years I've been looking for answers. He told me that I should earnestly seek God so that he would reveal himself. So I went home and kept reading the New Testament that Nathan Hrouda gave me a couple years ago.

I was in John 6, shortly after one of the versions of Jesus feeding the 5,000. I was immediately struck be line 26: "Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.'" I was convinced that eating the loaves had some deep symbolic meaning that might show me that there's a way besides an obvious miracle that might convince me of the reality of God. So I asked one of my housemates, Stephen Meyer, and he said that they were just following Jesus because He basically gave them a free lunch. I asked Stephen how looking for miraculous signs could be a preferable alternative when the Pharisees had asked for sign after sign. Stephen said that the problem wasn't in asking for miracles, it was that the Pharisees were so dead-set in their false beliefs.


I had to admit that I was definitely one of those stubborn people. Even though I'd been going to the Rock, to church, to a creation science class once a week, and I'd even started reading the Bible, I wasn't being open minded at all. Whenever I heard a statement, my first thought was "Where's the flaw in that argument? What's the best way to refute that claim?" I knew then that I needed to change my outlook, but still didn't know how I was supposed to get proof without a miracle. Then I read John 7:17 - "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.'" I kept reading until John Larsen came home, then told him about what had happened that evening and what I'd been thinking. He told me that it was awesome that my stubborn mindset had changed so greatly in one night, but that taking that step had pretty significant implications. I was sobered, but still determined to make a big step that night. I then remembered that I'd jotted down the lines of one more Bible verse that I'd just read while waiting for John. It was John 9:3, in which Jesus told people that a blind man wasn't being punished for his sins; he had bee blind so that God would be glorified upon his healing. The blind man might have suffered due to his blindness, but he must have appreciated his vision all the more once he miraculously received it. So maybe God wanted me to wait until now so that I'd have the kind of testimony that I'd wanted to hear for the last few months: a testimony with a clear point at which someone had a sudden revelation that led them to believe in God. I hope when I share my story with others, they will realize that the search for truth can be a long process, but eventually, if they're simply willing to open their mind just for a few hours, maybe God could reveal Himself to them.


That is what I did, as John asked if I was ready to 'take the plunge.' I did, praying with him to accept Christ. I may not yet understand everything about the Christian worldview or God's ways, but I felt that the events and emotional impact of that night were enough for me to make the jump of believing in God and begin my search for truth as a Christian.



That is why I love this church and this movement, to see people lives changed for Christ. I will say it again and I will say it for the rest of my life. I will run this race and keep running through the high and low only to see more peoples lives changed for Christ!

It's that time of the year again...

Well, yes the snow has fallen and it is about -5 degrees outside right now and we put up lights inside the house, have a little fake tree with lights on it and I am just loving this season right now.

But at the same time, it is also finals time. I have one final done and two more to go and a paper and a project. There is much to be done and much grace is needed. I could use some prayer along with the rest of everyone else that have finals.

And remember, keep that smiley face on your hand. :)

Why do I do all this?

The school year is about over. I am done with this semester on the 14th of December which means finals are right around the corner. I have this love hate relationship with finals as once they are done, that means I am done with that class. But that means that I have lots of studying to do. I always have to remind myself of why I am doing all of this.

Back when I was at CSU, I really didn't put God and school together. And with that, I was trying to do things on myself which eventually was my down fall with school at CSU. I would try and get a grade for myself to make myself feel good or for my parents so that I could show that I was doing okay. It was never for God that I was doing school.

I have learned way more now about why I do school than I ever thought I would. And even more so, why I do everything in this life. I have had to realize that my life is not my own. I have been listening to a band that I heard of recently called Owl City and one of the songs on the album is called Metor Shower says just that.

I can finally see,

that you're right there beside me,

I am not my own,

for I have been made new.
Please don't let me go,

I desperately need you

I am not my own,

for I have been made new,

Please don't let me go,

I desperately need you

 I had to realize that I do everything in my life for the glory of God and none other. That I can not take any praise for anything in my life and that it all has to redirected back to God. So when I do good in school, I can praise God for what he is doing in my life.


There was a brother who wanted to share the gospel with someone each day before he came and so he would put a small infinity symbol on his hand to remind himself to go sharing. It would remind him of eternity and that he wants to share eternity with someone else today.


Now what does this have to do with what we do and why we do it? For a while I would ask people if they wanted a smiley face drawn on their hand just because I had a permanent marker. I was actually talking about this subject with my break down group and I told them that if you need a reminder on why we do everything in our life, including school, put a smiley face on your hand just as our brother reminded himself of eternity.


So remember as we go through the end of the semester, why we do school. It is to glorify God alone! And if you need to remind yourself of that during the toughest of finals and projects and papers, then put a smiley face on your hand. 

Also, when you feel like school is just too much and over bearing, you can also look at this picture and know that our God is bigger than that! (Picture of the galaxy Andromeda taken with and ultraviolet camera) And that means that he is bigger than school!