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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:
- Reaction - passively dominated by urgencies and pushy people
- 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
- Independence - nonconforming rebellion in the name of freedom, marked by doing only what you want and ignoring godly authority over you
- 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.
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.
6 comments:
The name Mark Driscoll was ringing a bell so I Googled him. Interesting article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11punk-t.html
My advice is: always test the spirits. Does Driscoll's blog make sense? It strikes me as overly polemical. Too argumentative. He sets up the conditions of his argument to favor his own answer, rather than fairly dealing with the subject.
It is a good thing to take time for contemplation and silence. I'm all for it. But as an introvert myself, I don't believe that my natural tendencies make this any easier for me than for an extrovert. Introversion/extroversion has nothing to do with disciplined reflection. I find this as difficult as your extroverted self does! That’s my first point.
My second observation is that the “four ways to live” are completely artificial. They are set up to lead you to one conclusion and one conclusion only: intentional living is the best. Again, I have no argument with this basic idea, but it is poorly stated and, by making these false distinctions (reaction, conformity, independence - all painted with distinctly negative language – and intentionality – described in glowing terms), it opens a door to criticism and judgment of others –and guilt if you turn it on yourself.
That said, I want to encourage you in your own pursuit of spiritual discipline. And given your proclivity to fix things (not all bad), may you come to embrace the Serenity Prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
From the article that you posted, I don’t see much wrong with what he is doing. I have listened to many messages from Mars Hill that he has preached and they were many things that I agreed with. There was also a point where I listened to a message that many other people loved, and I have to say that I was not much of a fan of the message. There were some things in it that I did not quite agree with completely. I thought I blogged about it at one point but I didn’t considering I can’t find it. I feel like I talked a lot about it though.
I actually know many people who are introverted. It seems like many of the guys that I hang out with are introverted and we have had to work through this together as well. I agree with you that it may not come naturally to all introverts. I think he is trying to say that it is easier for many introverts to do this than extroverts. Although I can only imagine that there are many extroverts than can do this as well. As he says, “For those like me, organizing days for silence and solitude may come rather naturally.” (emphasis mine) I may not come all that natural to introverts like you said.
I think the reason why I like the reverse-engineering part so much is that I have heard his message about it and think that it is a good way to live out your life. And as far as fixing things, I don’t want to personally be the one that is fixing things. It has to be Christ working through me to even be able to start fixing anything.
I just want to use this as a stepping block for my times with Jesus. And I think it will bless other people as well.
Fair enough. He's not my cup of tea, but then, he'd probably call me a Christian girly man becuase I used the word "tea". His strong Calvinist stance is solidly within the Christian tradition, so no worries about his theology. The one thing about him that bothers me a bit is his reported insistance on 100% obediancce to his authority within his community. Strikes me as being similar to Jim Jones, David Koresh, and other charismatic leaders who establihsed cultish communities around their strong personalities. Of course, I have no direct experience - just one article to go on. The article may not have got it right.
I am blessed by your reflections :)
Whether or not the snippet of his writing that you quoted is well thought out, it's his writing I'm criticising, not yours. And it is certainly valid to use it as a springboard for your own thoughts.
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