Friday, December 30, 2016

Being alone is good; being lonely, not so good . . .

As 2016 ends, and life continues—here’s some of what I’m chewing over (ruminating) this sunny morning . . .

I know we are social and gregarious creatures, afterall we are made in the image and likeness of three persons who have been “hanging out together eternally” . . .        yet sometimes I need to not just be or feel alone, I need to participate in aloneness in my Christian spiritual journey  . . . 

The aloneness of my spiritual journey is not a synonym for loneliness.    To grasp and be refreshed by being with Jesus (and the rest of the Trinity) I have a gift of aloneness that’s really an oxymoron … “how can I be alone, when Jesus declared He would always be with me?”  

Aloneness is not isolation or insulation for I can be with others and be alone from idle or destructive social-interaction.   The key is to "give time to others and energy to them from a heart that’s attracted to Christ, not distracted by the values of this world . . ."

  • By “silence of speech” to be in the world, while not being of it.
  • Being intentionally alone emphasizes being apart from others, but it does not necessarily imply unhappiness.
  • The practice of being alone is commonly defined as “engaging the discipline of solitude.”


Murray Douglas - "Time alone at Haiti after the 2010 earthquake"

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