Welcome to This Is The Way episode 31!

“Solitude is a chosen separation for refining your soul. Isolation is what you crave when you neglect the first.” Wayne Cordeiro

The more busy and distracted I am, the harder it is to find solitude, and at the same time, it is even more necessary. Have you ever noticed when you’re busy or distracted, you make excuses to internally justify what you know aren’t the best decisions? I think a lot of times we think we will right our wrongs at some point in the future, like: I slept in and didn’t have time to eat a healthy breakfast, so I’ll grab some fast food, then while you’re about to take your first bite you’re thinking: it’s okay, I’ll just exercise extra tonight and make a kale smoothie. I think we do the same thing with solitude, we tend to neglect it until we reap what we have sown. The fruit that grows in soil that lacks solitude is bitter and doesn’t contain the nutrients we need.

Henri Nouwen says that

“Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. ...We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside some time to be with God and listen to him.”

“In solitude we become aware that our worth is not the same as our usefulness.”

Solitude prepares our hearts and minds for the unforeseen. When we spend time in solitude we begin to see others the way God sees them. We don’t measure them by if they add or subtract value to our lives. With solitude we can see their worth lies beyond what they do, that our worth lies beyond what we do.

If you have a thought, prayer or prayer request please leave a voicemail here.

I'm looking for people to give little (5min) devotional this month on solitude of kindness.  If you're interested or know someone who might be, let me know: [email protected]

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