COME APART BEFORE YOU COME APART

Mark 6:30-32 (ESV) ³⁰  The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. ³¹  And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. ³²  And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.

Having pastored for almost 40 years I’ve learned some lessonS the hard way about my own soul care and about the need for solitude and silence. The lesson is this: either I discipline myself to come apart and be with Jesus or I will end up being wore down and wore out and will be forced to take some time off.  Believe me, it is better for me to plan on time alone than to find myself broke down and in need of others to take care of me.

Nothing replenishes my soul like solitude.

It may have to do with whether you are an introvert or an extrovert – introverts gain their energy from within, and are drained by exterior stimulation. Extroverts, on the other hand gain their energy from exterior stimulation and are drained by interior work.

We only have to look at Jesus life if we want to find the practice of Solitude in scripture. We need to heed Jesus’ command, or invitation to “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place …“

Someone once said, “True character is who you are when you are alone.”


May I encourage you to take 10 or so minutes out of every, finding a place that you can be alone and quieting yourself before God. Start with 10 minutes, and then you may find that you want more time. 

Martin Luther felt that he needed 5 hours a day in solitude with God just so he could accomplish all that he had to do!


They say that you can even be alone even when standing in a crowd. So, if you have honed the discipline of solitude when you are alone, you could also practice it when you are in line at the grocery store.

Jesus says to us, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place...“ will you heed his call?

Some of us are afraid of being alone. As a result we fill our lives with noise all the time.

For some of us, we don’t like to be alone because we don’t much like our own company, or because our personality is so shaped by the people around us, we don’t even know who we are when we are alone.

Introvert, or extrovert, fearful, or expectant: we need to practice solitude because it will strengthen your soul.

- Jesus inaugurated His ministry by spending forty days alone in the desert (Mt. 4:1—Il)

- Before He chose the twelve He spent the entire night alone in the desert hills (Lk.6:12)

- When He received the news of the death of John the Baptist, He “withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart” (Mt. 14:13)

- After the miraculous feeding of the five thousand Jesus made His disciples leave; then He dismissed the crowd and “went up into the hills by himself...“ (Mt. 14:23)

- Following a long night of work “in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place...“ (Mk. 1:35)

- When the twelve had returned from a preaching and healing mission, Jesus instructed them, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place...“ (Mk. 6:31)

- Following the healing of a leper Jesus “withdrew to the wilderness and prayed” (Lk. 5:16)

- With three disciples He sought out the silence of a lonely mountain as the stage for the transfiguration (Mt. 17:1—9)

As he prepared for His highest and most holy work, Jesus sought the solitude of the garden of Gethsemane (Mt. 26:36—46)

One could go on, but perhaps this is sufficient to show that the seeking out of a solitary place was a regular practice with Jesus. So it should be for us.

So if we are going to be real with God, we need to get alone with him more often. In the quiet of solitude, all pretensions can be striped away, all the things in life that are trying to mold us in their image are removed, all the requirements of the world disappear, and we can stand before God “just as I am” as the song says. 

Once you have learned the discipline of solitude, you can steal solitude in the most everyday places when you get alone. Try not turning on the radio when you get in the car. Recognize God’s presence as you stand in line at the grocery store. Walk through a park on the way home and be conscious of walking with God. I try to make myself aware of God’s presence in the solitude of just my normal day to day activities.  It is then and only then am I able to recharge my soul.

Jesus says to us, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place...“ will you heed his call?