A Solitary Place

Lately I have been surprised by how much “noise” there is in my life. I am not speaking strictly of the auditory types of noise that surround us everywhere we go, though that is a part of it. I am speaking more directly to the fact that, in this age of technology, we are constantly bombarded with information. Most of us have access to unlimited amounts of data anytime day of night. We get our phone calls and emails whenever and wherever we are. We are connected to the world in ways that we never could have imagined twenty years ago. If things get too quiet I open my laptop or look at my iphone. There is a lack of times of inactivity. I fear that in the midst of all these great strides in technology we have forgotten something that is vital to our own humanity. We have forgotten how to unplug. Jesus was great at unplugging when he walk on the earth. I mean look at Mark chapter 1:35: “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He (Jesus) went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” This was not an isolated event for Jesus. He regularly slipped away and shut out the “noise” of the world for times of Solitude with the Father. When you look at this in light of the rest of Mark 1 you find that Jesus had been doing a lot of great things for people. Everywhere He went people were looking to Him for something and He was there for them. There were so many voices calling to Him, so many things that were requesting His attention and He slips away to find a solitary place. In the midst of doing so much good He realized that sometimes you have to set aside the busyness for solitude. I love the clarity you see in Jesus when his disciple finally track Him down.
v.36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. 37 When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.” 38 But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
When Jesus came away from His time of Solitude with the Father He was able to say “there are many good things that I could do here, but I need to go other places now because that is why I’m here.”
When we disconnect, when we find a Solitary place to be alone with God, we find a renewed clarity about life. We get a fresh reminder of what are we supposed to be doing, where we should be focusing our energy, what is really important right now! When we turn off the “noise” we can clearly hear the Father’s voice. I believe that is why Jesus could make statements like “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do...” - John5:19