Withdrawal

by Rollie J.

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16

How is your withdrawal? How are you doing at breaking away? How is your solitude? How is your balance of speaking and listening, of being together and being alone, of being in the world and separating to be apart?

I often wonder why it is, that the most influential and impactful person the planet has ever known, throughout all of history, found it necessary to break away, retreat, and withdrawal to be still, pray, and converse with his heavenly Father. Yet you and I either ignore this example or deem it unimportant. Hmmmmm.

The first step for solitude is departure. Meaning we must separate from our routine, our normal schedule, our normal habitat, and break away. We need to withdraw from our normal busyness, and the noise both physical and psychological that dominate our lives to find silence and quiet in order that we might hear the voice of God more clearly.

On a daily basis this departure may be as simple as finding a quiet space in the office, or in your home, shutting the door and taking in some quiet time. Departure could mean pulling your car over in an empty parking lot or park and turning off the radio and tuning into God. Departure may mean leaving your house to walk silently through the neighborhood or nearby woods.

And sometimes departure is a much bigger step when God calls us to deeper intimacy by withdrawing from the totality of our world, by leaving our all-important work, our family, our children, our spouse and our Netflix to go and retreat. And just like Jesus did, we retreat to the lonely place, the quiet place, the desert, or the wilderness. It is here in the quiet of creation that our heart rate slows down, our breathing deepens, and God’s peace may just have a chance of seeping into our soul.

I just returned from a three-day silent retreat. I normally do this once or twice a year taking others along to a Catholic Retreat Center, near Isanti Minnesota called Pacem In Terris (Peace on Earth). This time I went alone to a newer and much closer hermitage called Well of Compassion, near Vergas, Minnesota.

Well of Compassion was envisioned and is owned by my friends Blair and Betty Anderson. They provide this unique place and experience so that men and women of faith would have a cozy and comfortable place to come and be alone with God. A place for withdrawal from the crazy noise and pace of our modern busy lifestyles. A most wonderful refuge of solitude and silence; a desert place, a lonely place.

Well of Compassion has 75 acres of rolling hills and wooded trails and two log-cabin style, one-room hermitages. There’s purposely no electricity so you’ll have to leave your laptop and cellphone at home. Propane lights, furnace and one burner stove provide heat and light. Meals are provided in humble form to match the simplicity of life in the hermitage: freshly baked breads, muffins, fruits, and cheese. A bed and a rocking chair provide for the rest of your time in the poustinia (Russian for; desert or place of solitary prayer).

Hosea 2:14 declares boldly; “I will lead you into solitude and there I will speak to your heart.” Maybe these foreign and strange words I write today will call to a couple souls who will heed God’s call to join Him in deeper intimacy. This won’t be a popular or well-liked devo. Most will shrug it off. Modern folk like us have built up plenty of protective walls and layers of insulation against this ancient call to be truly alone with God. But maybe, just maybe… the Holy Spirit will nudge a few individuals to come and be alone with Him in solitude for a brief time.

And please don’t get me wrong, don’t let me oversell the hermitage experience. Time in the hermitage is not a magical or dramatic event or at least it has never been so for me. I rarely come away from my hermitage experience with deep or significant insights, or specific answers to issues or prayers. I’ve never once heard an actual “voice” of God. And I don’t think I’ve ever left that solitude with a nice, neatly packaged answer to the big questions or issues that I came with from my busy life. But I know that time spent in withdrawal with God is important. It’s an investment that pays both short and long term dividends.

Relationships only grow with time spent together. Significant time. And our relationship with God is no different. Quality one on one daily time builds a relationship. Sometimes we withdraw with our family, spouse or friends to be together. This hermitage is no different.

I think of the farmer who will soon sow seeds in the soil in a few short months. She doesn’t stand over the ground expecting immediate or dramatic results to pop up out of the soil. Nor the gardener who will soon plant flowers or vegetables? No, this gardener must first plant seeds, then water, tend, weed, and fertilize his garden. And if he is faithful, soon he will reap many positive rewards for faithfully tending his garden. Beautiful flowers that please the senses. Delicious and nutritious food that nourishes body and spirit. Farming and gardening are long haul processes. Our faith life is similar.

So today I challenge you to pause and take time for withdrawal. Step away from the ordinary noise and busyness to be alone with your Maker. Turn off the TV. Silence the radio. Set aside your phone. Close the door. Be still before the Lord… and know that He is God (and we are not!)

-- Rollie J.

In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength. Isaiah 30:15.

Kenosis- the emptying of oneself, in order to be filled with God. Introspection starts with you and ends with you. Interiorization begins and ends in God. In silence we fold the wings of our intellect, that the Word might take over our words. Nature abhors a vacuum. In the quiet of the hermitage our emptying- becomes filled with God. Restlessness was once considered the magic carpet to tomorrow. But now we see it for what it really is; a running away from oneself, a turning from the journey inward that all men must undertake to meet God dwelling within the depths of their souls. Catherine Doherty
Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer

One of the reasons for this is that quiet, honest prayer is often unnerving. So, unconsciously knowing this leads many of us to develop a schedule in which we become too active to slow down and too full to make room for God. In an effort to run from our sense of emptiness and utter dependence on God, our minds become filled with anxieties and worries, our hearts heavy with actual or imagined losses in our lives, and our spirits weighed down with angers, hurts, and a sense that no one really understands… So when we enter prayer the first commitment must be to just stay put, not run away, and be disciplined and regular in our attention to our time with God.
Robert Wicks.

The mark of solitude is silence, as speech is the mark of community. Silence and speech have the same inner correspondence and difference as do solitude and community. One does not exist without the other. Right speech comes out of silence, and right silence comes out of speech.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When we sit in silence and solitude, we expect a sense of peace. At first this is what happens. We are so glad that we have entered a space where we are free from the fast pace and tensions of life. However, if we sit long enough we eventually get uncomfortable, even anxious. We get ideas. We remember things we must do. We want to get up and write these down, make phone calls, or pick up a book.  If we resist such actions, the next phase of the silent period begins. During this period, we hear the noise that is going on in our belief system. Like a radio turned onto scan, our mind moves from different events- both recent and remote- that have emotion power. Hurts, shame, the silver casket of nostalgia, proud moments, anger, resentment all come to the surface.  Opening ourselves up to past agendas, distorted thoughts and hurtful ideas, and false beliefs that lurk below the surface and rise into the vacuum we have created in silence can teach us much.
Robert Wicks, Crossing the Desert

Be still and Know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

For anyone who may feel called to a hermitage experience, contact Blair Anderson, banderson158@gmail.com. Well of Compassion is not currently open to the public due to COVID, but they hope to be opening soon. Send Blair an email to get on their list.

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