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Solitary

           Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him,  and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
                Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. (Mark 1:35-39)

         “You need to have a quiet time, and you need to do it in the morning.” Given my preferences, I would spend at least an hour with the Lord every morning, digging into His Word and praying. Unfortunately, I’m finding it hard to stay awake long enough to ask God to let me get caught up on my sleep. My prayer life has reduced to “Help, I can’t do this!” and “DWA, God, DWA,” and “Heal him or call him home, Father.” As I noted yesterday, negative emotions reduce one’s world. Generally, I agree that quiet times are necessary and the best time to do them is in the early morning, but there are times in one’s life where one cannot manage anything more than “Help!”
          In looking at this passage, I’m going to suggest that praying like Jesus prayed not only means, in the morning but it also means solitary. This one is a little trickier. It means going somewhere there are no people. I love to take my dog on long walks, but that means I have to pay attention to what Grace is doing. And to what other pedestrians and drivers are doing. Oh, and there goes a bird, or a squirrel, or there’s some garbage someone’s left along the road. Doing that isn’t practical right now. How successful are you are ignoring people who are in the same room with you? I don’t mean pretending to ignore them while actually noticing and commenting internally on everything they do, but of not noticing them?  
          Even supposing you can do that, how far away is your phone? How often do you check it? How near is your access to social media? Even supposing you can shut down all of those, that’s when I face my greatest challenge, the people I take along in my head, some of whom I haven’t seen physically in years. These appear to fall into two categories. Our purpose is to pray for some of them. That is a good thing. Our purpose is to pray about others, and that can also be good, but more often than not, I end up in arguments with them. My time with God becomes a virtual battle of wits with a figment of my imagination.

          Father of light, so illuminate my mind that all that is not worthy is shown for the shabby trash that it is, and darkness has no place. Shine forth so that all those that are insubstantial disappear, and all that is left is true and You.

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