Which is Better: 5 Minutes or 5 Days of Solitude?

When was the last time that you took 20 minutes alone?

Too often we think that you have to go off to a monastery and spend a week with monks in robes.  We get this concept from movies. Celebrity goes off to find himself.  Returns a changed man.  Think 7 Years in Tibet.

Kathleen Norris, one of my favorite authors, made hanging out with monks a contact sport.

It's not the amount of time that you take to get away.  It's not about the people with whom you get away.  It doesn't matter if you come back feeling different.

It's enough simply to withdraw.

When we withdraw (another word for 'taking sabbath'), we pull back and actually give God a chance.  A chance to whisper something new.  An opening to get us to think about our day- its ups and downs.

Without withdrawing on a regular basis, our "faith system" doesn't get the full stretch that it deserves.  It's like owning a Porsche but never venturing into the far left lane.

Withdrawing is so right on so many levels.

It's enough simply to withdraw.