I have said jokingly to family and friends that I should launch an online tutorial on ‘self isolation.’ (Mates rates, of course). When I was discharged from hospital on the second week of January it was with the strict instruction that I should practice some measure of self isolation particularly as there was flu about. Little did we know that something worse was on the way. So I am used to self isolation. Not that I like it you understand but it has j become the pattern of my life. It is just something that has had to be. Certainly in the last two weeks or so I have become even more restricted. At one time visitors were permitted as long as they were bug-free and willing to use hand sanitizer before entering into the presence. That has now had to stop.
As with most things that challenge the human condition you will find isolation in the Scriptures. In Psalm 38 David is in the throes of some dreadful illness. It involves weakness, open wounds, back pain, palpitations, trouble with his eyes. As a result of this friends and neighbours draw back from him. (verse 11) This may be because of his appearance or because of the association of sickness with sin. David himself believes he is under the judgement of God. Whatever the reason, he is very much on his own, isolated, lonely. But he believes he will find relief in his God:
‘LORD, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.’ (verses 21-22)
Here we all find the way forward when isolation leads to the nagging emptiness of loneliness. Years ago I came across a book by the spiritual writer Henri Nouwen called Reaching Out. In this he traces what he calls ‘The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life’. The first of these is ‘From Loneliness to Solitude.’ Loneliness is painful and hard to bear. In solitude we may be on our own but we are aware of God and the fulfilment and contentment that flows from Him. Is this not what Paul refers to in Philippians 4: 12-13 when he speaks of the contentment he has found in God whatever his circumstances and how: ‘I can do everything through him who gives me strength.‘ This is a life that is constantly oriented to God and may well be solitary but will never be completely lonely.
As with so many things, however, it’s good to get down to practicalities. It’s good to aspire to the blessings of solitude but how do we get there? How do we move from loneliness to solitude? In one of his novels F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of ‘the fine quiet of the scholar which is the nearest thing to heavenly peace.’ He was describing someone who had taken so much from study and at least for a time knew a deep satisfaction and contentment. I believe this is possible with the spiritual resources we have to hand. To lose yourself in a passage of Scripture or a prayer or evocative music or art is to open the way for God to touch us in the depths. A Presence that leads us out of painful loneliness to the ‘heavenly peace’ of solitude.
