Friday, November 18, 2005

Morning of Solitude

I participated in a "Morning of Solitude" Thursday morning which was called by our pastor. We were just to show up at a certain parking lot near one of the walking trails in our suburban city's parks system. The plan was to walk alone and pray and think for as much of three hours as we could.

It was a great time. The air was very cool and the sky was bright blue without a cloud. It's been a while since I took a big chunk of time to just be quiet before the Lord. I feel like I received some real insight from Him on the trail.

Do you occasionally take extended time to just be quiet with our amazing God?

A long time ago I heard a cute little way to remember to do this and the principle has always stuck with me (though I rarely execute it well). What follows each bullet is "my take" on what those words mean.

  • Divert Daily - a daily "quiet time" with God
  • Withdraw Weekly - block out an extended hour or two weekly to spend in worship, meditation, God's word
  • Quit Quarterly - take a day each quarter to get away and refuel
  • Assess Annually - take a retreat overnight annually to dig in and assess how the year has gone and what should be different next year

Thanks, Gene, for calling us to that morning of solitude. Right now my life is running so fast that it takes someone else making me slow down and refresh.

BTW... have you heard Crowder's new tune "Here is our King". I am loving that song! Who are your favorite worship leaders, bands these days?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like the principles. Good to remember, hard to practice without the intention to dedicate the time.

I love the new Crowder song. Anything Crowder is good. Who else? Michael Gungor, Rita Springer, Jason Upton, most of Eoghan Heaslip (not so much the last album), Robbie Seay, Third Day (Offerings 1 & 2), Hillsongs and then it gets hit and miss with songs here and there Shane & Shane, Tree 63, Starfield, Jeremy Camp, Lincoln Brewster. (I'm surprised I had that much to say about it...)