Invited, not commanded

Pastor Max begins a new practice by noting that Jesus never commanded His disciples to read the Bible, fast, go into solitude, or live in community. He simply did those things and said, "Come and follow me." The practices are not a have to but a get to. He cites a University of Virginia study in which many participants, including two thirds of the men, chose a painful electric shock over sitting alone in a room for fifteen minutes, and World Health Organization research naming noise pollution the second largest environmental health threat after air pollution. The problem is that we hate silence.

Distraction as the greatest threat

Quoting Dallas Willard, Blaise Pascal, and even Friedrich Nietzsche, Pastor Max observes that people have long drugged themselves with busyness to avoid what might be whispered in the silence. Adults use smartphones the way toddlers use pacifiers. What if the greatest threat to following Jesus today is not persecution but busyness, not a lack of desire but a lack of focus? To hear God's voice we must put distance between ourselves and every other voice.

What solitude is and is not

Some Christians avoid solitude because it sounds New Age, but Psalm 46:10 says to be still and know that He is God, and meditation is only as powerful as what you meditate on. Solitude is not loneliness, which is about absence; it is about presence. It is not isolation, and it is not an introvert's me time. Solitude is God time, intentional time in the quiet with ourselves and God. Pastor Max admits this does not come naturally to him; a restaurant owner once nicknamed him the shark because he never stopped moving.

Jesus often withdrew

Luke 5:16 says Jesus often withdrew to lonely places, the Greek eremos, to pray. Mark 1 describes a whole town at the door one evening and Jesus rising before dawn to go to a solitary place. He did not sleep in, go to brunch, or hit the gym; He went to be alone with His Father. Jesus had more demands on His life than any of us, so if you are too busy to practice solitude, you are too busy not to.

The test in the wilderness

In Matthew 4 the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tested after forty days of fasting, and He fights with the Word of God. Solitude, fasting, and Scripture are how Jesus did battle, and we cannot defeat what we are too distracted to confront. The first test tempts Jesus to meet His own needs outside God's provision. The second tempts Him to manipulate God's promises for selfish attention. The third offers Him the kingdoms already promised in Psalm 2, but in the wrong timing, from the wrong source, and without the cross. Pastor Max points to Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar as a warning that the right thing in the wrong timing is destructive.

Jesus passed the test

Adam, Noah, Moses, Israel, and David all failed. Jesus, the second Adam, passed, and Romans 5 and Hebrews 4 explain the result: through His obedience many are made righteous, and because our high priest was tested without sin, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence. The invitation to solitude is an invitation to intimacy with God, possible only because of Jesus. Solitude requires external silence and the harder internal silence, because whatever is down in you will come up, whether worry, anxiety, or simple fatigue, as Elijah discovered in the desert. Do not judge each time by how it feels; the goal is perseverance, not perfection. Start with five minutes a day and grow from there. Pastor Max recalls Juliet growing quiet on a date months into their relationship because she had become comfortable enough just to be with him, and says solitude with God has grown the same way: less talking, more listening.

Five minutes together

Rather than send people home untrained, Pastor Max leads the whole room through five minutes of solitude: sitting in an open posture, quieting the mind, handing over whatever surfaces, asking God to speak, and simply listening. Afterward he notes that many people only realize how tired they are when they finally sit still, and that awareness is the beginning of letting God do His work. He urges everyone to build solitude into daily life as a follower of Jesus.