Sigurd Olsen, an outdoorsman/writer who spent his life paddling the lakes and rivers of the huge swath of wilderness on the Minnesota-Canadian border enveloped by silence broken only by the cry of a loon or the splash of a jumping trout, once wrote: “without stillness there can be no knowing.”
A century and a half earlier, Henry David Thoreau moved into a tiny cabin on Walden Pond, determined to learn something about simplicity and solitude. Withdrawing from society to explore a simpler life, Thoreau writes in his classic On Walden Pond:
“we go constantly and more desperately to the post office, but the poor fellow who walks away with the greatest number of letters, proud of his extensive correspondence, has not heard from himself this long while..”
Now replace “the post office” with “email” or “Facebook” or “Instagram.” Replace “letters” with “likes.” A book written in 1854 perfectly diagnoses our modern social media obsessions! Who knew?
For many of us, we are so busy hearing from others, we no longer hear from ourselves! That’s the danger of life without solitude—our inner life withers away like a field of corn in a draught turns brown and brittle.
Why are solitude and silence so important to a transformed life?
Eugene Peterson, a Presbyterian pastor and author who wrote the Bible paraphrase The Message, has taught extensively about the spiritual life. I had the privilege of taking a two-week class from him as part of my doctoral studies.
Peterson reminds us that every human being has three parts. First, we have a mind—we are thinking beings. Next, we have a body—we are acting beings.
A majority of North Americans function almost exclusively in these two areas—thinking and acting. Christian leaders also focus most of our energy here as well—getting people in our churches to think right about God and act right for God.
But we give much less time and energy to the third part of us in the center between these two—our spirit or soul. This is the deepest part of every human being. We probably all know someone who has the right ideas about God and behavior God approves and yet we can’t stand them!
Why is that? Because their right ideas and right behavior haven’t changed their soul. This was the problem of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, for example. Every social worker, probation officer, counselor or pastor knows that just getting people to think or act in new ways will not result in genuine transformation—but we often forget it.
If we want our spirits or souls to grow, solitude is not optional—it is essential. It’s in solitude that we slow down long enough to actually interact with God.
We forget that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is gentle and unassuming. He came, you remember, to the prophet Elijah not in the wind or storm or fire but in a “still small voice.” God will usually not compete for our attention, as long as our minds are occupied and busy.
If even Jesus needed to frequently withdraw from his busy life into a place of solitude and silence to interact with his heavenly Father, why should we think we should be any different?
What will happen if we make space for solitude in our lives?
Here’s how Dallas Willard describes it:
“Solitude frees us, actually. This above all explains its primacy and priority among the disciplines. The normal course of day-to-day human interactions locks us into patterns of feeling, thought, and action that are geared to a world set against God.
Nothing but solitude can allow the development of a freedom form the ingrained behaviors that hinder our integration into God’s order.”
The Spirit of the Discipline
Solitude short-circuits the automatic responses that govern so much of our lives. Very honestly, it forces us to confront things we’d rather ignore. (Jesus’ largest span of solitude was 40 days in the wilderness and we know whom he confronted there—Satan himself.)
What might I discover by spending time in solitude?
- Maybe I realize that my whole value as a human being isn’t riding on how well I do at work…
- Maybe I begin see that the person I’ve always disliked has sides to them I’ve never taken time to understand…
- Maybe it sinks in that I am more than how people react to my looks or personality…
- Maybe it dawns on me that what money can buy doesn’t really satisfy me after all…
- Maybe I admit to myself the anger always boiling just below the surface in my life…
As we saw last week, our heavenly Father’s great desire is to help each of us “put off” the habits of the old life so we can “put on” all that a new life in Christ offers us. But God cannot help us without our cooperation. We must invest some time and energy. A place to begin is solitude.
As we’ll see in the coming weeks, solitude is a basket that easily holds many other crucial disciplines like prayer, meditation or scripture—all become more effective in solitude.
How do we practically go about seeking solitude?
For some of us who live alone, we might have more solitude than we want. But solitude is not simply being alone. It’s very possible to be alone and still be filled with distractions so that we never experience solitude.
The key is making space for God by releasing from one’s mind from all that usually fills it. Opening up this quiet space for God is greatly helped by silence.
Someone might do this best in a quiet corner of their home in the morning. For someone else, it’s walking the dog through the quiet night. For yet another, it’s taking long drives with the radio off. We can experiment with what best fits our schedules and routines. Many of us already have such quiet opportunities throughout our day and can simply re-purpose them.
The essential thing is switching mental gears from “control” mode to “receiving” mode.
This doesn’t happen instantly. For me, my best times of solitude are usually out in the quiet of nature, walking through the woods or sitting along a gurgling stream. In the gospels we often see Jesus retiring to a “lonely place” away from people; that’s still a good example for us.
Is there a payoff if we choose to invest in solitude and silence? I have certainly found so. In an extended time of solitude, I often feel God’s peace flow into me exactly like water into parched earth.
I have found no better description of the benefits of solitude than these words, once again from Dallas Willard:
“You will know this finding of soul and God is happening by an increased sense of who you are and a lessening of the feeling that you have to do this, that, and the other thing that befalls your lot in life.
That harassing, hovering feeling of “have to” largely comes from the vacuum in your soul, where you ought to be at home with your Father in his kingdom. As the vacuum is rightly filled, you will increasingly know that you do not have to those things—not even those you want to do.”
The Divine Conspiracy
Do you yearn for what these words describe (as I do)? Slow down and ponder this week how you can add more solitude and silence to your life.
