Prayer & Worship
Between work and small children I am never alone and never quiet. Where is a person in my situation supposed to find time alone with God?
“And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.”
In the middle of a long story about arranging a marriage, one line notes that Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening, and looked up to see the camels coming. It is not a ceremony and it is not in a building. A man walks out at dusk to think and to pray, and the narrative treats it as an ordinary personal habit that was simply worth mentioning.
“And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.”
Luke records that as the crowds grew and the demand on Jesus increased, he withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. The Greek suggests a repeated pattern rather than one memorable occasion. He had no privacy, no control over his diary and a permanent queue of people with genuine needs. The solitude never appeared in his schedule by itself. He removed himself in order to get it.
A path forward
Reclaim the twenty minutes you already have rather than hunting for new ones: the commute, the walk back from nursery, the first part of a lunch break.
Ask your partner or a friend for one deliberate hour this month, and offer them the same in return. Solitude for a parent usually requires somebody else's cooperation.
Take the shortest version seriously. Two minutes in a parked car with the radio off is time alone with God, and it counts.
Closing verse
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
- Matthew 6:6
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