I would imagine most have seen the movie, Castaway. It is the movie with Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt and Tom works for FedEx and his plane crashes in the middle of the ocean and he ends up on an island, makes a friend with a volleyball and eventually believes that he can leave the island to return to Helen. He leaves the island, drifts for 500 miles in the ocean, gets picked up by a freight ship, comes back home and finds that Helen is now married and his sole reason for keeping himself alive all this time is no longer there for him.
It is such a strange experience to watch this movie. I just watched the last hour of it. I have seen it several times. Once I turn it on, I can't stop watching it. And I know what it is. Once the plane crashes there is very little talking that goes on for quite some time. All you hear is the sounds of the ocean with Tom occasionally talking to himself. It really makes me stop and think.
A few years ago, the idea of solitude was first introduced to me. At the time, I could barely grasp the concept. I immediately thought of this movie. I even made the picture for this blog back when I was beginning to learn about solitude. That was about as far as I got in creating my own interpretation of what solitude meant to me.
As I have mentioned before, I have had an experience that has inspired me to shift my priorities in life. I am now trying to put God first in my life. A couple things in the past couple months have assisted me in formulating a better idea of what solitude means to me. My sunday school class recently previewed a few chapters of a John Ortberg book called "The Life You've Always Wanted." One of the chapters talked about God being a fatherly figure in our lives. John Ortberg talked about watching his wife or his kids while they sleep and thinking wonderful thoughts about them and desiring the best for them in their lives. John pointed out that this is what God does while each one of us is sleeping. This thought had never entered my brain before. I guess I never thought about God looking over me as I slept and my first thoughts were that he would be saying, "Maybe tomorrow you can do better. Maybe you have learned your lesson from being such an idiot today. Maybe you'll remember to talk to me before you come up with one of your "brilliant" plans that your wife can sniff out in a second. Thank goodnes you have finally gone to sleep." Did I think God would say those things to me????Maybe. Maybe in a mentoring kind of way. But the book and the Bible tell me that God is my Heavenly Father. No loving father thinks bad things about their kids while they watch them sleep. It really caused me to think differently about my relationship with God. The more I put myself into his Word, the more I begin to see just how much He loves me.
So I now am understanding better the love of God. I am also learning to talk with God more. We are now in the mystical season of Lent. Why do I say that? People give up things for Lent, watching too much TV, drinking coffee, cursing, chocolate, alcohol, you name it. I like to think of it as our second chance at your New Year's resolution, but this time there is a catch. I you slip up you go to hell. Just kidding. But that is the mystique. I have been doing these things in excess my whole life, they are probably shortening my life by ten years, but I just keep doing them. But for the next 40 days I will stop doing them because I am afraid of what God will do to me if I slip up. Besides I only have to wait until Easter and then I can get back to the things I love. Quite honestly before this year I have to say I was one of those people. But now I am perfect. OK not really. Now I have finally learned what the challenge truly is during Lent. I gave up a few things and vowed to do a few things. But this time it is different. I obviously don't want to fail, but I actually gave up a few things that put me out of my comfort zone. Who am I trying to kid? They have to do with food. But when I think about that I have to miss out on something, I need to remember to pray to God and thank him for the blessings in my life. Pray for the strength to uphold my Lenten vows. I also have to pray each morning to remind myself of my sacrifices because if I don't Satan is ready waiting to slip one by me.
Is there a point to this? Have you just wasted a good five minutes of your time because I am not going anywhere with this blog? Yes there is.
I am learning to talk to God in the quiet times, during the drive to work, in the mornings before I eat breakfast, in the late hours of the night, when I am tempted, when I am sad, when I am confused, when I am concerned. I am learning to develop my relationship with the Lord. At the same time I am learning what it means to put God first in my life. I am not always doing a good job of it, but I am ever more conscious of what it means.
And I am able to defend my beliefs. When I was a kid, a couple came to our door and wanted to talk with me about life. They wanted to give me a couple little magazines to read and maybe they could come back later and find out if I had any questions. I knew that Jehovah's Witness people came door to door and new the name "The Watchtower," but I really didn't know what to say to them. I thought I would humor them and take their magazine and listen to what they had to say, but I also knew I would never buy in to what they were trying to do. Later in life, I would just not answer the door or would tell them I was not interested. If I was feeling really bold I might tell them I go to church and I believe in God and Jesus and all that stuff. But honestly I didn't know what to say to them and I certainly didn't need to get myself into any conversations like that. I do plenty of that on my own.
But Friday something different happened. I had to stay home from work because my wife was sick and I needed to watch our girls, which never happens. (Kwinky-dink or divine appointment (as my preacher would say). You decide, I know the answer). So I am sitting in the living room with the girls and someone knocks at the door. A Friday mid-morning and someone is knocking at our door? I knew exactly who it was (well that and a new JW church was just built near our house). The girls and I opened the door and there was a woman with two small children. The little kids asked if I had little kids and wanted to know if I wanted to have a couple little magazines that would tell them how to keep safe. I looked over and saw a kid's magazine and a Watch Tower magazine. I said, Yes I do have little kids, but we go to a church where they learn to love the Lord Jesus and learn that God sent him to this world to die for our sins and that if they believe on Him they will have everlasting life. Then the woman said, This is not about church. Don't you want to protect your children from child molesters? I looked her in the eye and said, I will protect my little girls by raising them in the right way, teaching them wrong from right and praying to God every day that he protects them. She looked like she didn't know what to say. She turned the little kids around and said have a nice day. I closed the door and did a dance that I am certain my wife and daughters would prefer I not do in public. I felt great. I finally was able to say to someone. Hey you got it all wrong and I will not be deceived. I firmly believe that is a direct result of me learning to have solitude with the Lord.
Then my wife, fever and all, got out of her bath robe, got completely dressed in two seconds and walked half a block down the street to invite the woman to her Bible study. OK. I am going to have to work on that one.
Lord, I love what you are doing in my life. I love finding out how much you love me and I love learning more and more about you. I pray that you will take this knowledge and turn it into wisdom for me to live my life. Lord please give me the strength and focus to uphold my Lenten vows to you. And Lord, please protect my daughters from evil.
2 Peter 1:3-11 (NLT) As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature.
So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance and patient endurance leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind or, at least, very shortsighted. They have already forgotten that God has cleansed them from their old life of sin.
So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Doing this, you will never stumble or fall away. And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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