Rays of Light

“What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be.”
 Ellen Burstyn

Normally, if someone told me to go away, I would be hurt and offended. But Jesus isn’t just anybody; when He tells me to “go away,” I am more than happy to do so. Then again, He never asks me to go away from His presence; quite the opposite in fact. He longs for us to get away from the cares of this world in order that we might spend time in His glorious presence.

Mother Teresa summarized this well when she stated: “We too are called to withdraw at certain intervals into deeper silence and aloneness with God, together as a community as well as personally; to be alone with Him — not with our books, thoughts, and memories but completely stripped of everything — to dwell lovingly in His presence, silent, empty, expectant, and motionless. We cannot find God in noise or agitation.” ¹

Although Jesus never had difficulty in finding God, the Father, even He felt the urgency of going away from the crowds and from the daily demands of life. We read many accounts in Scripture of Jesus doing just that.

For example, the apostle Mark recounts that Jesus, after what must have been a very demanding and exhausting time of ministry in Capernaum, “went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” Mark 1:35

Mark also records another time that Jesus, after teaching for a long time, fed the multitudes, then:

… made His disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side to Bethsaida, while He Himself was sending the crowd away. After bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray. (Mark 6:45-46).

Luke records that Jesus “withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” And that at another time He “he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” 5:16, 6:12).

No doubt Jesus went to the wilderness or the mountain in order to secure His privacy, but it is possible that He also felt God’s presence more keenly in the beauty and solitude of nature. I know I do! The most intense encounters I have had with my LORD have been while I was alone in the mountains; alone here meaning without the company of another person, but engulfed in  God’s very real, nearly tangible, presence.

Wouldn’t it be nice, dear reader, if we could all just take some time to go away, for an extended period of time, to the mountains, or seashore to spend time with the LORD, and He only?

But let’s be practical; very few of us have the opportunity to do so. Nevertheless, it is crucial that we make time in whatever way possible, as Mother Teresa said, “to dwell lovingly in His presence, silent, empty, expectant, and motionless.”

It is equally as important to occasionally take a temporary furlough from certain activities, be they television, sports, blogging, or whatever particular that steals away your days and whittles away your hours. Actually, this is why you haven’t seen a new blog on this site for a while. I was being obedient to God’s instruction to “go away” for awhile and recharge my batteries, spiritually speaking. Now that I feel more energized, I plan to do more writing again, LORD willing.

In closing, I wish to reiterate that God longs for us to go away from the cares of this world in order that we might spend time in His glorious presence. And if we can do so in the beautiful and majestic cathedral of nature, that’s all the better.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. ~John Muir

¹ Mother Teresa, In the Heart of the World: Thoughts, Stories and Prayers