Solitude

Deitrich Bonhoeffer wrote “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community…Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.”

The last THRIVE class was on the discipline of Solitude. I loved teaching this class--one of the best ways to learn, or re-learn something is to teach it. When it comes to discipleship, the cliche of "those who can't, teach" should certainly not be true. I strive to practice everything I preach, but believe that I have to be vulnerable and authentic enough to share that I don't have it all together, and my own spiritual walk is just as much of an "in process" thing as everyone else's.

Back to solitude... we ran out of time during our six-weeks (that class will seven weeks long from this point on), so for this last session, I recorded the teaching plus a few favorite solitude-time songs for the class to take home and work on in...well, solitude. I think it added something extra to the teaching simply because I was sitting in an office by myself while I recorded it. In both my time of preparation and time of teaching I was able to constantly rely on the Holy Spirit as my only sense of interaction. It was a moving experience. For those of us who are used to going partially off the reactions of those listening to us (verbal and non-verbal), doing something like this is a challenge, but it was really rewarding! I pray the participants have an amazing time with the Lord as they walk through the study.