If you?ve read this blog long, you know that we believe a strategic spiritual and leadership practice is setting aside a day (or at least part of a day) per month to be alone with God. This is a core value of ours. Recently, one of the leaders in our training raised this question: I […]
The Scent of Prayer
I remember as a child my hands used to get so chapped and dry they bled. As Mom rubbed them with lotion I’d cry. But then they would always get better. As I drive toward the coast, California looks that way. Her landscape, so cracked and brittle from lack of water looks ready to cry […]
Life-Giving Loneliness
One writer whose novels have often stirred?me is George MacDonald. Listen to this little dialogue between two people about holy loneliness or solitude: “What I want to ask you,” said Ian, “is, did you ever feel alone? Did loneliness ever press itself so upon you that you felt that if you called nobody would hear? […]
A Holy Rhythm of Solitude and Ministry
I lead a lot of retreats that include an extended time alone and quiet with God in the schedule. For many, it?s quite a challenge. For others, it?s a welcome opportunity. Sometimes, I think more would come to our retreats if they were scheduled nice and tight with lots of information to learn or techniques […]
Quiet: Capturing Quiet Spaces for God
I?ve shared a quotation in this blog before from a book by Ann Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea. Below are a few others on the themes of solitude, silence, simplicity and open space for God. ?For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. Only in space are events and objects and people […]
Making Excuses for Silence & Solitude
If you haven?t read Anne Morrow Lindbergh?s little book, Gift from the Sea, you?d enjoy it as a summer spiritual ice chest for your soul. Listen to this insightful passage: ?If one sets aside time for a business appointment, a trip to the hairdresser, a social engagement, or a shopping expedition, that time is accepted […]
