Walden’s Cabin

[Jesus] said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”

Mark 6:31

America’s great philosopher Henry David Thoreau extolled the virtue of solitude. Living in his isolated cabin at Walden Pond, Thoreau wrote, “I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. . . . I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”

Few of us want to live by ourselves for extended periods in an isolated cabin far from human voices, but our society has gone too far in the other direction. We can’t stand stillness, we disdain meditation, and we dislike our own company. When we’re alone, we feel compelled to turn on some source of noise. We’re alarmed at the thought of being out of cell-phone range.

Remember, however, that Jesus would rise early in the morning to hike into the mountains for solitude. Think of Elijah and John the Baptist, who found strength in being alone. It’s impossible to grow spiritually without learning the secret of withdrawal to be alone with God. It’s not loneliness we need but rather more time alone.

I know of no way to recover that which we have lost other than to cultivate the practice of being more frequently alone with [God].

J. WILBER CHAPMAN