Solitude

“Without great solitude no serious work is possible.” _Pablo Picasso

*****

Do you ever wish that the noise would just stop?

At least for a few minutes?

It can but it does not come easy.

Pablo Picasso points us in the right direction and I could not agree with him more at least when it comes to solitude.

However solitude goes far beyond producing “serious work”, your very sanity and well-being requires it.

Carving out time for solitude is one of the great priorities of life. To fail to do so is to fail…to be less than…to undercut who your could be and to surrender to the tides of noise that drowns out your own thoughts smothering your very soul.

Solitude can be scary…being alone with your thoughts.

But press in, think, reflect and resolve.

In the end you will be so much better for it.

It is so empowering to face the day — with all its cacophony of opinions, causes, and chaos clamoring to tell you what you should think and what you so do — having already resolved what you will think and what you will do.

And it gets better…

While solitude requires quietness, it does not required aloneness.

Through great books you can invite the greatest minds and most influential people who have every lived into your quiet time.

And through worship and prayer and reading the Bible you can invite the Creator and Sovereign of the Universe (The source of all wisdom and truth!) to you side.

Noise drowns out their voices, but when you carve out a place and a time for solitude, you not only can hear your own thoughts and heart but the wisdom of the ages and the Voice of perfect love.

It’s almost breathtaking to think of it!

The ONE THING for today: Carving out time for solitude is one of the great priorities of life. Without it you will never truly know who you are and who you were meant to be…and that, my friend…is the serious work of life.

“Guernica” is not only Picasso’s best-known work, it’s one of the most famous (and Google-searched) paintings in the world. Its depiction of an aerial bombing raid on the Basque town of Guernica in April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, was an eerie visual prelude to the coming atrocities of World War II. (Source: Feb 3, 2020, CNN)