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"
