Solitude. It is the most foundational of the disciplines of
abstinence, the via negative. The evangelical passion for
engagement with the world is good. But as Thomas a' Kempis
says, the only person who's safe to travel is the person
who's free to stay at home. And Pascal said that we would
solve the world's problems if we just learned to sit in our
room alone. Solitude is essential for right engagement.
I so appreciated in Bonhoeffer's Life Together the chapter,
"The Day Alone", and the next chapter, "The Day Together".
You can't be with people in a right way without being alone.
And of course, you can't be alone unless you've learned to be
with people. Solitude teaches us to live in the presence of
God so that we can be with people in a way that helps them
and does not manipulate them.
Another thing we learn in solitude is to love the ways of God;
we learn the cosmic patience of God. There's the passage in
Isaiah in which God says, "Your ways are not my ways," and
then goes on to describe how God's ways are like the rain
that comes down and waters the earth. Rain comes down and
just disappears, and then up comes the life. It's that type
of patience.
In solitude, I learn to unhook myself from the compulsion to
climb and push and shove. When I was pastoring that little
church, I'd go off for some solitude and worry about what was
happening to people and how they were doing and whether they
would get along without me. And of course, the great fear is
that they'll get along quite well without you! But you learn
that's okay. And that God's in charge of that. You learn that
he's got the whole world in his hands
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