Lonely Can Be a Lovely Word

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. 

(Luke 5:16 NIV)

Sometimes I want to be lonely--without company, cut off from others, not frequented by human beings. Some may say this is sad.  But in my loneliest times, I have found God or He finds me. 

When alone, solitary companionship occurs. God alone fills my deepest desires, comforts me in grief, strengthens my emotional being. So maybe I desire solitude--a privacy to be with my thoughts, to be with God.

Jesus sought the lonely places for prayer. He rested from company.  

Once in awhile, maybe quite often I am looking for that quiet day where I can walk in the lonely woods--to cry if I need to--to hum a tune--to sit still listening to . . . 

the gurgling brook

the rushing fountain

the muffled voices

the siren and traffic in the distance

and I am reminded that I am never too lonely.

I just step out of the woods and I am in the midst of the human race

ready to engage, to understand, to embrace, to listen, 

to do what human beings do--

alleviate

each other's loneliness.

Linking up with Five Minute Friday, Still Saturday and The Sunday Community and Sunday Stillness

Forgive:To Give Up Resentment

  Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
 Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt,
    whose lives are lived in complete honesty!

(Psalm 32:1-2 NLT)

 

 

One of my favorite and most challenging spiritual writers would have to be Henri Nouwen.

 

A compilation of his teaching on Solitude, Community and Ministry can be found in the book, A Spirituality of Living.

 

In the book he defines, forgiveness this way:

 

"Forgiveness is to allow
the other person not to be God."

 

 

Nouwen's devotion below speaks of forgiving the Church, which really would mean forgiving each other as well, since we make up the Church.

 

Forgiving the Church

When we have been wounded by the Church, our temptation is to reject it. But when we reject the Church it becomes very hard for us to keep in touch with the living Christ. When we say, "I love Jesus, but I hate the Church," we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness, at least not officially. But the Church as an often fallible human organization needs our forgiveness, while the Church as the living Christ among us continues to offer us forgiveness.

It is important to think about the Church not as "over there" but as a community of struggling, weak people of whom we are part and in whom we meet our Lord and Redeemer.

 

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Random Saturday

Since I started the 31 Days of Challenge sponsored by the Nester, I have been following a pattern of posting my weekly schedule of Monday Musings, Tuesday's Pic, Word of the Week Wednesday, Thrilling Guest Thursday, and linking up with Five Minute Fridays.

When Saturday arrives, I'm not quite sure what I will post. The last couple weeks was related to prayer:

Pray: To Entreat or Implore;To Make a Humble Request

How to Pray for An Hour

Here it is another Saturday! I think I will post about Image. Sort of a follow-up to yesterday's post about LOOK.

Image can mean an exact likeness, a tangible or visible representation or incarnation. (www.m-w.com)

Whenever I think about the fact that we are created in God's image, I can scarcely take it in. When I ponder the fact that Jesus took on our flesh becoming God with us, my soul soars with joy, peace and hope. Even though, I will never quite be able to completely understand. I can only imagine what it was like for God to become man.

As an image bearer, I enjoy looking at images: paintings, nature and photographs. Each medium gives just a hint of eternity and holiness and beauty and grace and light and darkness and joy and pain. All these facets of God, but not God at all. God alone. God incarnate. God the Spirit. God with us and dwelling in us. Too much. Too wonderful for words or photos or anything really.

If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

I Corinthians 8:2-3 ESV

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