Solo….portion A

The final portion of staff training here at the ranch is what they call a “solo.” It’s a 24 hour stint where you wander out into the woods by yourself, armed with sack lunch (aka Peanut Butter sandwiches and apples), a sleeping bag, a hiking pack, a tarp and a ground pad and whatever else you can cram into your pack and still be able to keep it on your back. The point is to have an entire 24 hour period to be silent and still before the Lord; sort of an extended-devotional time.

My solo began Wednesday at lunchtime and concluded Thursday at lunch. It ended up being a tad different than the “guidelines” set forth, but was possibly the most impactful time I’ve ever spent with the Lord. I set off on what we’ll call “solo portion A” with two Nalgene bottles of water (you can’t drink out of the creeks here or you can contract Montezuma’s Revenge…not the way I want to spend the remainder of my summer,) my sack lunch, the Bible, Piper’s “Desiring God,” the “Intentional Life of a Disciple” text that we are reading as a staff, a journal, bug spray, sunscreen, and my trusty Mac laptop (which is affectionately named “Sparky”) and headed about five minute south of the Bean to a creek that runs behind the Johnston’s house. I climbed down the rocky embankment, found a flat rock, and set up camp.

I started off by eating lunch and just enjoying being away from the hustle and bustle of camp, and rejoicing in the fact that I didn’t have to clean that morning. The sound of the creek was refreshing and calming and I enjoyed just sitting and being silent and by myself, and listening to everything around me. After a short while I decided to begin to read the Word. I’ve often heard people talk about how the “Lord gave them a scripture” and they “meditated on it all day” and have honestly had trouble understanding that for two reasons. A) I don’t always hear the Lord speaking to me, let alone have Him instant message me a scripture verse whenever I’m struggling with something and B) I just don’t have the attention span to meditate on something for more than about a minute. However, today I ate my words. Julia, our girls’ staff head, had suggested that if we got on our solo and weren’t sure where to start reading the Word, to start with Psalm 23. So I began there and then decided to continue on and read Psalm 24 and then Psalm 25. It was in this chapter that two verses stuck out to me and directed the next few hours.

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
For you are the God of my salvation;
For you I wait all the day long.”
-Psalm 25:4&5 (ESV)

One of the other suggestions for solo time had been that it was a good opportunity to seek the Lord’s Will on important decisions. At this present time, I have no important decisions pending…I am pretty settled in my occupation, city of choice, etc., etc., and through these verses I felt the Lord calling me to just seek Him because He loves me, and I Him and for no other reason. I was hit by the thought that so often I seek Him only for a purpose; I want wisdom, I want some blessing or some thing to go my way, I received wisdom or some blessing and I want to say thank you. Rarely do I seek Him, just to be with Him. Just to spend time together. Just to love Him, and let Him love me. For five hours I sat and pondered these verses, wrote them in the sand on the bank of the river, and danced in the freezing cold mountain spring water like a silly schoolgirl with a crush. My spirit was so overflowing by the time it was time to go in to lead worship that I’m certain I continued my schoolgirl antics whilst playing violin. But I’m in good company…David was undignified before His Lord, and after all…I’d just spent the day with the Lord with whom I’m crazy mad in love with.