By Chris WittsSaturday 4 Jan 2025Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
We know our own lives can be in chaos because of our busy lifestyle. We know how busy we can get and we know how the pace of life gets faster and faster until we’re all running around frantically in mindless pursuit of ever meaningless things. So what I want to propose to you this morning is that we need a release. We need times when we can take a breath, when we can pull ourselves out of the rat race, refocus, and regain our perspective on life.
And the good news is, God has already shown us the way to do this… through the habit of solitude. Solitude enables us to do all those things… it enables us to get life in perspective, it enables us to take a breather, it enables us to refocus… but the greatest thing about solitude–and the real reason the Bible talks about it–is that it enables us to experience God.
Read Mark 1: 29 – 39
“Solitude is abstaining from people contact in order to be alone with God and get closer to Him.”
~ Keith Drury, With Unveiled Faces, p. 31
The importance of solitude and rest
Solitude is important. And so is community. It’s not an either/or situation. You don’t have to choose between living in solitude away from everyone else and living in community with everyone else. God designed us to live in community while scheduling and taking advantage of brief times of solitude. Solitude is a way to shut that door and to allow our souls to recover.
How many of you remember the movie Castaway starring Tom Hanks? In that movie, Tom Hanks is travelling on an airplane when something goes wrong, it crashes into the ocean, and Hanks is the only survivor. So he becomes this lone castaway on an isolated tropical island. He’s there all alone. And through most of the movie, we see a transformation in his character.
Beforehand Hanks’ character was ruled by his schedule. He was career focused, rushing here and there, sacrificing meaningful times with his friends and family, and doing everything he could do to get as much done as possible in as short a time as possible. And then the island. He was stranded there… he was isolated… there were no more modern conveniences… there was no more agenda… there was no more career to worry about… there was no more rushing here and there… there was no more busyness and stress… there was no more noise… there was just him, alone on the island, with a volleyball named Wilson as his only companion. And in the movie we see a transformation take place in Hanks. We see him progress through the first few hours on the island, the first few days, then weeks, months and even years. And over time, we find him becoming a much different person.
Now, that was an extreme form of solitude. And it’s not really the kind of solitude we’re talking about here this morning because God wasn’t part of the equation. But we do see that he is changed for the better, he comes to realize what’s really important in life, and he gets to know himself in a much deeper way.
And in a sense, what Tom Hanks’ character in the movie goes through is what every follower of Jesus needs to go through from time to time. We need to go through regularly, even weekly or daily, periods of solitude when we’re focused completely on God and we all Him to transform us. We need that solitude.