Learn to Be Alone预览

Reflect

Now begins the journey homeward. As you journey back to the beginning, reflect on whatever the Lord has spoken to you.

Did you receive a word of encouragement? Take heart.

A word of inspiration? Get creative.

A word of conviction? Commit to turning around and living life a different way.

How will your experience in the quiet center change your mindset and heart posture as you reenter the world of noise? How will your centered heart interact differently with the scattered world around it?

Once again, use a breath prayer (for example, “Lord, here I am”) to center and re-center yourself as you journey to the beginning. Use all these things as conversation points in your communion with God.

Start imagining what life on the outside will look like. How will you talk differently, act differently, respond differently, and relate differently because of your encounter with God?

I think of Moses as he returned from meeting with the Lord on the peak of Mount Sinai:

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was unaware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, so Aaron and all the community leaders came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward, all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with Him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw his face was radiant again. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord (Exodus 34:29-35, NIV).

Can you imagine? Can you imagine if our interactions with God were like this? If every time we exited the center of communion with Him, our faces radiated with life and light?

That’s what I hope each transformative encounter with the Father leads to for me. I hope that’s what you desire too. And the best part? You don’t need a mountain, a labyrinth, or a temple to have such an encounter. God can meet you, right here, right now.

He has given you everything you need.

As you exit this quiet space, finish by simply declaring, “So be it.” In the church, we say, “Amen,” which means, “Let it be.”

Believe that God is who he says He is—and then trust him as you go forth, radiating to those around you.