Few can willingly walk into the dark without anticipating light.
I felt that heading into the trails this morning; the possibility of sunrising light drew me into the evaporating night of woods-land.
Solitude can feel like going into the dark -- disorienting, uncomfortable, hard to get your bearings. But, solitude actually brings us light...light for our souls.
When we enter into solitude to be with God alone, we quickly discover how dependent we are. Without the many distractions of our daily lives, we feel anxious and tense. When nobody speaks to us, calls on us, or needs our help, we start feeling like nobodies. Then we begin wondering whether we are useful, valuable, and significant. Our tendency is to leave this fearful solitude quickly and get busy again to reassure ourselves that we are “somebodies.” But that is a temptation, because what makes us somebodies is not other people’s responses to us but God’s eternal love for us.
To claim the truth of ourselves we have to cling to our God in solitude as to the One who makes us who we are.
-- Henri Nouwen
