Very true! Our boys and I find spiritual renewal spending a week or two in the wilderness, which is pretty easy in the western US. The silence alone is amazingly restorative.
11 September 2016 at 03:08
as said...
When I withdraw from society, I become self-absorbed.
Some readers of this blog will probably be interested in Rod Dreher's entries, and forthcoming book (early 2017), on the "Benedict Option."
13 September 2016 at 20:39
Responding to a blog post at William Wildblood's Meeting the Masters I wrote:
"Remember that when Jesus wanted to commune with God more fully he
withdrew from the crowds and towns and went into the deserts and
mountains, and this remains true today, if not always literally, then
certainly symbolically and psychologically."
The point is well
made - if even Jesus needed to withdraw from the distractions of other
people, noise, busyness... then how much more do we?
And yet how
few people do this? (maybe a couple of weeks a year of holiday... but
then the holiday often involves two or three days of miserable
travelling, and may itself be filled with frantic activity and excessive
intoxication!)
In almost everybody's life, there is ample
possibility of withdrawal, every day; If it is made a priority. Which it
should be, because withdrawal is a necessity, not a luxury.
A great
strength of the Christian way is that it understands God as both outside
of us and within us (because we are God's actual children, hence divine
- albeit embryonically).
According to our current challenges
and circumstances, we can therefore seek and find God both within and
without; as a feeling and as a relationship.
And our assurance
is that the necessary help will always be given if asked-for,
listened-to and accepted (remembering that sometimes it is better for us
not to get help but to do our own best to overcome our own difficulties
- indeed this is the normal and usual thing); and that true help is
ultimately directed at our eternal well-being, not necessarily or often
what makes us happiest in this mortal life).
"We absolutely need to withdraw from society and distraction - God is inside And outside us"
3 Comments -
Very true! Our boys and I find spiritual renewal spending a week or two in the wilderness, which is pretty easy in the western US. The silence alone is amazingly restorative.
11 September 2016 at 03:08
When I withdraw from society, I become self-absorbed.
11 September 2016 at 22:35
Some readers of this blog will probably be interested in Rod Dreher's entries, and forthcoming book (early 2017), on the "Benedict Option."
13 September 2016 at 20:39