Issue 1426 – Little Log Cabin – April 19, 2024
This photo was taken in 2007 near “Thee Ark” in Ardrossan, Alberta. Thee Ark is a huge Quonset hut on a friend’s farm that is used as a meeting place or party hall. It took 40 days to build, hence the name.
“the cowboy church” was doing some baptisms and celebrating there that day. I’m sitting in a nearby log cabin, doing some study and prep, and enjoying the solitude of the little log cabin before the main event.
The cabin is delightful. The bench behind me folds out to make a small bed. The cabin has all the amenities except running water and plumbing, but those are nearby. It’s ideal for one or, at most, two people.
Most people who have met me are surprised that I am actually an introvert. I enjoy people and need a certain amount of human interaction. Yet that same interaction exhausts me (even more after my brain injury.) I have to have large blocks of non-people time to stay functional.
I couldn’t run off to the woods and become a full-time hermit because too much alone time isn’t good for me. It’s a balancing act.
We all need some time alone, a quiet place to retreat for a few moments or longer. Even Jesus needed to get away.
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. Luke 6:12
And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed Luke 22:41
If Jesus, fully human and fully God, needed to take some quiet time to be away from others and alone with God, how much more do we need to do the same?
Jesus understood the balance of time with people and time alone. It’s not good to be too much of one or the other.
We all have busy periods and life stages when it is challenging to snatch those few moments. Yet, it is essential to be diligent about it.
Every person’s circumstance is different. I can’t tell you how to carve out your little private niche of time with God, but I can offer some suggestions.
You may have a convenient log cabin in the woods to retreat to, but probably not. For some people, it might be locked in a bedroom or bathroom for a few minutes. For others, it might mean getting up a little earlier or staying up a little later. Maybe it means not watching that favourite show you have been streaming or putting off watching it for a few minutes. The opportunities are as endless as the circumstances are varied.
I pray you can make some alone time with Jesus a regular part of your day.
Be blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. Your value in God’s eyes is so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. You are so precious to God that his plan for heaven will not be complete without you.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV)