Most people seem to admire the type of person that we call a “go-getter”.  By that, I mean  a person who has a high energy level and is continually getting things done.  And that is indeed an admirable personality trait.  But any person who tries to manage life strictly on that basis will come to a time and a place where this method is utterly useless. 

When tragedy strikes, and our hearts are broken, we cannot handle that by getting things done.  When age increases, and strength diminishes, and the limitation of time becomes            inescapably clear, we cannot handle that by getting things done.  When fear comes like a ghost in the night and rattles the windows of our minds, we cannot handle that by getting things done.

Energetic activity is a marvelous thing!  We all need it, but we also need something more.  The human spirit is like the human body in the sense that it needs two legs on which to walk.  To meet the world head-on and get things done – that is one leg.  To retreat from the world and renew our spiritual and emotional powers – that is the other.  There are few things more pathetic than souls with only one leg – people who know how to get things done but have never mastered the art of renewing their spiritual and emotional powers.

Sooner or later, life will do to them what it does to all of us – it will put them to the test.  Some failure, some  disappointment, or some great sorrow will knock on their door and will ask them these questions: How deep are your roots?  How much can you stand?  These kinds of questions cannot be answered by energetic activity alone.  We might be able to get busy and forget for a little while, but the hour will come when we must face ourselves and decide who and what we really are.  Can we stand the test or not?  Jesus Himself had to answer those questions in His own life many times.  And He was always equal to the challenge because He knew the secret of renewing His spiritual and   emotional powers.  Jesus always found times and places to retreat from the world so that “…He could go off to a lonely place in the desert; there He was absorbed into prayer.”  His purpose in doing that was not to avoid the harsh realities, but to equip Himself to better deal with them.  And that is true for you and me.

You and I will not be able to help this world very much until we master that art of retreating from it.  If we would give of ourselves, we must see to it that ourselves are worth giving.  Jesus found a lonely place where He was absorbed in prayer, and that is the secret.

Our Churches remain open from 6:00 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday.  Perhaps this could be your out of the way place to spend time in prayer.