Captured Solitude
Proverbs 7:18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
:19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
:20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
There is this illusion of freedom to do anything without fear of consequences when it is thought that no one is around, when there is solitude, and no one will know or see anyway. Somehow a green light goes on for the party place when Mom and Dad are out of town for the weekend. To stay up all night is to have certain liberties that just don’t exist when everyone else is awake. As long as there are no other cars on the road, the rules don’t necessarily apply- can speed a little/ roll through a red light or stop sign. When individuals aren’t present they can be thought and talked about without worry of what they might think or how it might hurt them. Certain objectionable images or videos can be viewed behind closed doors. And, when the man of the house is gone for a while, it’s an opportunity to engage in activity that would never take place otherwise in his presence. It is in perceived seclusion, if but that of the mind, that considerations begin and are nourished that ultimately lead to acts of public embarrassment and shame. Vulnerability exists in those times to consider: the proposals of a serpent in a beautiful garden, the whisperings of an enticing individual, or the ranting of a heart that has lost its hope for living.
There is great opportunity in the silence and quietness of solitude that will cause us to act in ways that we might not even consider otherwise. But, while there is so much evidence of this being a negative potential, there is also an opportunity for perception of the Spirit to become stronger in those moments. Among so many others, Moses, Samuel, David, Abraham, and Jesus, Himself, were all in a place of solitude when their moments of God awareness were the greatest. It was from those times alone with God that they drew strength, confidence and faith to do in public what they would never have been able to otherwise do. When access to their secret place was given to the Holy One, their captured solitude was given potential like no other moments in their lives. Once it was discovered that there was this incredible Presence ever there in the shadows of their ‘alone’ times, the destructive power of solitude to dissuade them from their purpose was dislodged and made to be completely unproductive. Though they might enter into wilderness times of temptation, they would know that God would be an ever present help no matter the sense of aloneness.
So there is an extreme wideness in the diversity of choice we are given each day as we go in and out of moments when we’re away from human influence- when we’re ‘alone’. Awaiting us there is the voice that will call us to fleshly fulfillment and earthly passions, while quite opposite will be a voice of purity calling us to a place of victory and freedom at the side of our Redeemer. There will, in fact, never be a moment when we’re free from observance or ultimate consequence for choices made apart from human awareness- we will never truly be ‘alone’. We’ve a promise from Jesus that He will never leave or forsake us, while on the other hand there is this enemy who is like a roaring lion, ever present in the times of our vulnerability with an appetite for the part of us that is most precious to our Father- our worship. To really know God is to choose Him in the silence apart from every other beckoning presence, and to choose Him there is to choose Him everywhere. It may be possible to go with God when public pressure would require it and choose His counterpart when it would seem they (and God) are gone. But I believe it is not possible to truly acknowledge and honor Him in our moments of seclusion and ever be persuaded by any other pressures of life to depart from the One who alone has the words of eternal life. When He has our solitude, He has our life.
Great power and great potential wait for us there—- Who will capture our solitude?
Psalms 139:5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
:9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
:10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
