The following posts will be copies of my journal as I experienced this time of solitude on my sabbatical. I ended up staying at the Christ in The Wilderness Spiritual Retreat Center. You can visit them online at www.citwretreat.com , a great place to get away if you are up to the challenge of a road trip and being alone with Jesus.
Day 1- Afternoon
Well I traveled about 3.5 hours to get away from it all. And I am away from it all. Still adjusting to that today. My original plan was to travel to a monastery in Kentucky and live a few days with the monks in solitude. That trip was about 6 hours and I had enough driving for the time being and decided the day before heading to Kentucky to see if there were any other options. I called two places. One place called me back. Christ in the Wilderness is located near Rockford, IL and is a unique setting of spiritual solitude. At any time there are only three guest in this 80 acre piece of property. Each with their own private cabin. When she called back, she said just an hour ago someone had cancelled, and that indeed I could come in the next morning.
So, here I am…I am having trouble slowing down and unwinding today. The whole ride over I realized I had the radio going the whole time. No silence in that car ride. You know how you go to a hotel and what are the first things you do….hop on the bed and grab a remote. Well there is a bed here, but no TV, no wireless, no bells and whistles…but they do have air conditioning thank goodness. Well my first hour here was spent doing an interview with a writer from the Chicago Tribune. They were doing a piece on how the economy has driven people to seek spiritual refuge to survive. I am not sure if I did a good job of answering the questions the way they wanted, but I did get a chance to be very real about my faith in Jesus and what this experience means to me.
After they left I sat down and did some reading. I brought books about prayer, leadership, preaching, and of course my Bible. Finally after about an hour I set out on a walk to talk with God. For those of you that know me well or have heard me speak about my prayer life, I like to walk and pray. I do it at the church and it was awesome to do it out here on the miles of trails. I walked and talked with God. Now, I have never heard God’s audible voice, but I do believe that I hear him more clearly when my mind is clear of all of life's distractions. I believe he speaks through the Spirit in my thoughts. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it does to me. After about an hour on the many trails they have, I am back and ready to eat dinner. Tonight, I cook a pizza (real rustic huh?). Perhaps I will post more later tonight.
Day 1- Afternoon
Well I traveled about 3.5 hours to get away from it all. And I am away from it all. Still adjusting to that today. My original plan was to travel to a monastery in Kentucky and live a few days with the monks in solitude. That trip was about 6 hours and I had enough driving for the time being and decided the day before heading to Kentucky to see if there were any other options. I called two places. One place called me back. Christ in the Wilderness is located near Rockford, IL and is a unique setting of spiritual solitude. At any time there are only three guest in this 80 acre piece of property. Each with their own private cabin. When she called back, she said just an hour ago someone had cancelled, and that indeed I could come in the next morning.
So, here I am…I am having trouble slowing down and unwinding today. The whole ride over I realized I had the radio going the whole time. No silence in that car ride. You know how you go to a hotel and what are the first things you do….hop on the bed and grab a remote. Well there is a bed here, but no TV, no wireless, no bells and whistles…but they do have air conditioning thank goodness. Well my first hour here was spent doing an interview with a writer from the Chicago Tribune. They were doing a piece on how the economy has driven people to seek spiritual refuge to survive. I am not sure if I did a good job of answering the questions the way they wanted, but I did get a chance to be very real about my faith in Jesus and what this experience means to me.
After they left I sat down and did some reading. I brought books about prayer, leadership, preaching, and of course my Bible. Finally after about an hour I set out on a walk to talk with God. For those of you that know me well or have heard me speak about my prayer life, I like to walk and pray. I do it at the church and it was awesome to do it out here on the miles of trails. I walked and talked with God. Now, I have never heard God’s audible voice, but I do believe that I hear him more clearly when my mind is clear of all of life's distractions. I believe he speaks through the Spirit in my thoughts. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it does to me. After about an hour on the many trails they have, I am back and ready to eat dinner. Tonight, I cook a pizza (real rustic huh?). Perhaps I will post more later tonight.
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