A solitary place to pray
During one of Rob’s deployments, I found this amazing little mountain house that was built in the 1920s. It was a home that I dreamed of as a kid. She had good bones and I imagined all the memories created there through all the years. It was a two story white farmhouse with a front porch that faced the road. It sat on over 20 acres of land and had a creek running down the middle of the property. The minute we drove up to the property, I knew this would be our home. It was a solitary place, you had to drive over 30 minutes to the nearest grocery store (that has its own challenges when a dog steals your Thanksgiving turkey-story for another day!) To anyone else, it looked like an old farmhouse in the woods. To me, it was peace.
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35, NIV). No matter how hectic life became, the moment I would get in the car and start my drive to the mountain house, I would gradually feel the weight lifted from my shoulders. My breathing would slow down and all that seemed so critical would fade to the back of my mind the closer I got to the mountain house. As soon as I parked, I would step out of my vehicle and hear the running water from the creek as it washed over the rocks. I would take a deep breath of the mountain air and immediately feel surrounded by all the God created.
I would wake every morning and sit on the front porch and sit in silence. This was my solitary place to pray. I would begin to hear the birds as they awakened to the rising sun. With my hot tea in hand, I would sit in awe of all that God created and be prayerful about all those things that just 24 hours prior felt all consuming. Sometimes, we all need to find our “solitary” place where we can shut out the noise and have our intentional and focused time with God. Maybe it’s not a mountain house, maybe it’s laying on a bed of pine needles under the canopy of trees. Maybe it’s sitting by a bubbling brook in a public park. Your solitary place, is the place where you can sit in silence and draw closer to God.
Today, I pray you find your “solitary” space, and like Jesus, spend time in prayer with our Heavenly Father. I pray that you give yourself grace in needing the silence and the time alone-even Jesus needed time alone to pray.
