Where Is Your Quiet Place?

Matt and I started reading "The Emotionally Healthy Church" yesterday. I can already tell it's going to rock my world. I so needed to hear Peter Scazzero's challenge for church leaders to strive toward emotional and spiritual health. I want that for Matt. I want that for myself. I want that in our home.

Emotional health is modeled by Jesus through expression and boundaries. Scazzero points out:

"I saw Jesus able to express His emotion with unashamed, unembarrassed freedom ... At the same time, I observed how Jesus was able to separate Himself from the expectations of the crowds, His family, and His disciples. His relationship with His Father freed Him from the pressures of those around Him. He was not afraid to live out His own unique life and mission, regardless of other people's agenda for His life."

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus retreated to a quiet place. Sometime the crowds followed Him, and He delayed His time alone with God to teach and serve their needs. Other times, He dodged them and found His quiet place.

For the past seven years, I have tried to start each day in my quiet place with God. In this home, that place is a big purple chair, the "quiet" administered via earbuds connecting me to some kind of music without words. (My current favorite is Jim Brickman's "Grace" album.) I read my Bible; I journal; I pray.

But many noises try to fill that quiet place ... "I'll just check my e-mail before I start," "Oh, the dog needs a walk," "I'll take this phone call first and make it quick." Some of the noises/needs are valid; many are Satan's attempt to keep me from that place where he knows God will focus me on His purpose for my day. I pray for discernment to know the difference and to protect that precious time.

So, where do you go to quietly retreat with God? And how do you protect it from the "crowd"?

Comments

[Anjuan]

Unfortunately, I have to admit that the bathroom is the best place for me to use as a quiet place. I am thankful to have a privacy door to the toilet area, and the small space prohibits the use of a desktop or even laptop computer. It's the only place I can have dedicated alone time, and I am able to read the Word and take notes. While I can't play music, it does a good job of blocking out a cell phone signal which keeps me off of my Smartphone by precluding receiving calls and getting email. With a wife and three kids, the bathroom is the only place that sends a clear "do not disturb" message.

[liz rios]

Hi there again. I read this book with my team back in NYC. My church also had Pete at our home church. He also wrote another one Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. I gotta tell you these books are MUSTs for people in leadership it totally rocks your world and helps you face yourself.