Fortress of Solitude
When things get too much for Superman, he heads to his Fortress of Solitude. You remember? It's in some icy-cold place...a cave, I think. It's where he goes to re-focus.
It's part of our American heritage, too. The Thoreau "Walden" experience. Getting away from it all to re-group.
We do it with vacations, too. We're working hard, warp-speed-busy, saying to ourselves, "If I can just survive for three days, I'll get to vacation. Then I'll re-calibrate."
So, that book I was telling you about? The Death by Suburb: How To Keep the Suburbs From Killing Your Soul by David L. Goetz? Remember how I said we'd walk through it together...those of us that were interested? Yeah. From the first chapter this book has been enjoyable provocative and helpful for me.
The author sets the tone by saying, "The harsh light of suburban living tricks us--our lives are anything but flat. One simply needs eyes to behold its thickness. The discipline, then, is learning to see again...It's a higher existence, a plane where I am not the sum total of my house size, SUV, vacations, kids' report cards, and that which I still need to acquire."
And his solution to learning to see again? Well, it's in 8 parts, but the one I want to focus on today is where he talks about solitude. He says it helps us to see the world the way God sees the world instead of through our suburban cultural milieu.
"The practice of solitude may be the most important spiritual discipline for the suburbs. And it's probably one of the most difficult to practice here." Mr. Goetz postulates that if you miss a Bible study or church or service opportunity then it has a built-in consequence of some time...but if we ignore solitude...well...life goes on with no real apparent damage.
He then goes on to say that when we think of solitude we think it terms of getting away from it all...the beach excursion, the lake house, the hunting lease, etc. But he says that isn't how we should find solitude--and backs it up with this statement: "If beauty and solitude are preliminary to the deeper life, then why does the mountain states region in the United States have such high rates of suicide?"
He goes on to say that there are ways of solitude that you can do where you live right now and find that time consistently...and I could list some of them here...
...but it'll be more fun if we work through it together.
So...
...how do you "get away from it all" and focus on your walk with God in the right here, right now?
When things get too much for Superman, he heads to his Fortress of Solitude. You remember? It's in some icy-cold place...a cave, I think. It's where he goes to re-focus.
It's part of our American heritage, too. The Thoreau "Walden" experience. Getting away from it all to re-group.
We do it with vacations, too. We're working hard, warp-speed-busy, saying to ourselves, "If I can just survive for three days, I'll get to vacation. Then I'll re-calibrate."
So, that book I was telling you about? The Death by Suburb: How To Keep the Suburbs From Killing Your Soul by David L. Goetz? Remember how I said we'd walk through it together...those of us that were interested? Yeah. From the first chapter this book has been enjoyable provocative and helpful for me.
The author sets the tone by saying, "The harsh light of suburban living tricks us--our lives are anything but flat. One simply needs eyes to behold its thickness. The discipline, then, is learning to see again...It's a higher existence, a plane where I am not the sum total of my house size, SUV, vacations, kids' report cards, and that which I still need to acquire."
And his solution to learning to see again? Well, it's in 8 parts, but the one I want to focus on today is where he talks about solitude. He says it helps us to see the world the way God sees the world instead of through our suburban cultural milieu.
"The practice of solitude may be the most important spiritual discipline for the suburbs. And it's probably one of the most difficult to practice here." Mr. Goetz postulates that if you miss a Bible study or church or service opportunity then it has a built-in consequence of some time...but if we ignore solitude...well...life goes on with no real apparent damage.
He then goes on to say that when we think of solitude we think it terms of getting away from it all...the beach excursion, the lake house, the hunting lease, etc. But he says that isn't how we should find solitude--and backs it up with this statement: "If beauty and solitude are preliminary to the deeper life, then why does the mountain states region in the United States have such high rates of suicide?"
He goes on to say that there are ways of solitude that you can do where you live right now and find that time consistently...and I could list some of them here...
...but it'll be more fun if we work through it together.
So...
...how do you "get away from it all" and focus on your walk with God in the right here, right now?
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