The picture on the cover
reminds me of one of my most
cherished memories. I was in Vallecito Canyon in Colorado. For several
years I had been struggling with the scientific evidence for the
existence of God from an atheistic standpoint. Prior to that time I had
been an active atheist loudly proclaiming that no intelligent person
could believe in God, and that the Bible was a bunch of myths and fairy
tales that no educated person could possibly believe. I had taught
myself some Hebrew and started through the Bible to prove it wrong, and
I had taken pride in how tough I was and how I could argue down any
street preacher who claimed to be a Christian. I was a “big man” on
campus and a lot of people knew me and knew I could handle the
foolishness of religion.
In spite of all of that notoriety and self confidence, I was not a
happy person. Being in the limelight all the time had a price, and in
spite of my arrogance and put-on airs I knew deep down inside that
there were questions that I could not answer that in the hands of a
skilled and knowledgeable Christian could destroy my position. I had
come to Colorado to get away from all of that. I hiked up the canyon
and climbed down the side of a box canyon very much like the one in the
picture. When I got to the bottom there was a beautiful, crystal-clear
stream, a large waterfall that made enough noise to muffle all other
sounds, and walls on all sides of me that guaranteed that no one would
interfere with my solitude. I had nothing to prove, nobody to try to
outsmart, nothing to gain, and nothing to break my train of thought. It
was just me and the beauty and power of nature.
I had no mystical experience, no voice out of the wind, no vision, and
no religious experience as such. The solitude I experienced however,
gave me a chance to see that I was not God, and my life as it existed
at the time was meaningless. The guiding principle of “survival of the
fittest” that I had built my life on was fruitless and brought nothing
of value to me, to my relationships, or to my attempts to make life
meaningful.
If you look carefully at the picture, you will notice that there are
two figures in the center near the waterfalls--and one is apparently a
child. Some of my favorite memories of special times with my children
have been times when we were like the two figures in the picture,
isolated in solitude with no one else to worry about and nothing to
focus on but each other. My favorite memories of my two daughters are
times like that—fishing with my daughter Cathy on a beaver dam in
Colorado, climbing the Sandia Mountains overlooking Albuquerque and
camping on Saganaga Lake (Minnesota/Ontario border) with my daughter
Wendy. One of my fondest memories of my wife is sitting in front of the
picture window and watching the snow swirl outside our home when we
were snowed in and everything was shut down due to a blizzard.
Solitude is important, and too many times we have to be forced to take
advantage of it. Jesus was led by the Spirit into a place of solitude
(Luke 4). It is interesting that after 40 days and at the end of that
period the Bible says the devil left him for a time. Satan knows that
if we get away from his agents and the devices that tempt and influence
us, we will draw closer to God. Luke tells us that “Jesus often
withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). We know that the
apostles also practiced retreating to solitude. In Acts 10:9 and
Revelation 1:10 Peter and John seemed to have been isolated from the
others and in that solitude received visions that altered them and the
Church.
Retreating to solitude is not something we do expecting some kind of
divine revelation that overpowers us. Rather, being in solitude from
time to time gives us a chance to look at our priorities, focus on our
blessings, and look at why we believe what we believe and do what we
do. Do not neglect solitude--it will be a blessing for you.
