Tags
awareness, blessings, Christianity, consistency, family, growing, loneliness, relationship, solitary
Most Christians have a least one favorite scripture. One that speaks deeply to their core, that they can recite at the drop of a hat, that speaks volumes about who they are, where they’ve been, and most importantly, their relationship with Christ. One of mine is, “God sets the solitary in families” (Ps. 68:6a, KJV).
First let’s talk about this word solitary. As an only child from the union of my mother and father, I’ve felt solitude. This feeling of solitude was compounded when both my mother and father married other people and had other children. My life’s journey – having lived in five states and moved four times in the last five years – has caused me to feel solitary. Being single has added to this feeling of solitude. Also being a Christian with relatives who only go to church on holidays, and being an academic in a family where most didn’t complete college….all these things have caused me to feel as though I was the “solitary” that God would place into a family.
And He has…in His exceedingly, abundantly more than I could ask or think fashion. I have families all over this country. People with whom God has linked me so inextricably that I am sure we will be together until the end of this world.
But I am still, more or less, a solitary person. I enjoy alone time. I enjoy stillness. I enjoy quiet. All at the same time. This I realize is different from many people today who like to fill every hour with something. Life today seems to mirror the Red Queen’s race: “it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
I used to think my solitude was something to shake off, something to pray away. And yes, God said it is not good for Man to be alone, yet Jesus often stole away to a quiet place with God. He confined himself to solitude with God: to hear, learn, and grow as a result.
The key to these solitary confinements is that they are with God. The first moment of solitary confinement that I can remember was when I was about four years old, sitting on the steps of my great-grandfather’s barn…alone. It was after my great-grandmother’s funeral and I had slipped away from the main house and all the people. Sitting there I spoke to God. I wanted to make sure my great-grandmother would be taken care of. And God assured me that all was well with her….and with me.
Without these moments of solitary confinement with God, I would not have been able to withstand my life’s journey or become the person God is forming me into. Now, many years later, I am grateful for having always been a solitary kind of person. Yet God calls all of us to steal away, to lean in if you will, to engage in solitary confinement with Him. All He asks of us in this time is that we come to Him believing that “He is and a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6b, KJV).
