Joel Vestal

Richard Foster on the importance of Solitude: 

Solitude. It is the most foundational of the disciplines of abstinence, the via negative. The evangelical passion for engagement with the world is good. But as Thomas a’ Kempis says, the only person who’s safe to travel is the person who’s free to stay at home. And Pascal said that we would solve the world’s problems if we just learned to sit in our room alone. Solitude is essential for right engagement.

I so appreciated in Bonhoeffer’s Life Together the chapter, “The Day Alone”, and the next chapter, “The Day Together”. You can’t be with people in a right way without being alone. And of course, you can’t be alone unless you’ve learned to be with people. Solitude teaches us to live in the presence of God so that we can be with people in a way that helps them and does not manipulate them. (more…)

Why only see what is present and be critical?   Create something new.

off to a mission banquet in Houston tomorrow…