soul.breakin'

I have to unplug. I have to get away--to the mountains--to reconnect with Jesus and my own soul from time-to-time. This is how I know where God is moving in the depths of my soul. This is how I keep my ears and eyes open to the movement of the Spirit. This is how I fast from the busy-ness of life.

My last soul.break was two weeks ago. I didn't tell you about it because it happened rather quickly. I went to Skycroft for an evening and unplugged.

Some things I like to "do" while on soul.break:

• Bring my journals. I flip through the pages since my last soul.break (usually 6-12 months prior) and record what I discover to be the 3-5 major themes emerging in my life. I then write down the lesson I learned (or am learning) and how I will respond. (BTW, I believe this is practice of journaling and solitude is part of the lost art of "listening" to God...)
• Bring my Bible. I generally read through one book of the Bible during my time away. This past time it was Luke's Gospel. I've read through Jeremiah, James, 1 & 2 Timothy, Galatians and Jude before as well.
• Walk. I take long walks through the woods. Try not to think about much--just decompress from life.
• Bring half-a-dozen books. I usually bring around 6 books with me and feel which book I need to be reading. This past soul.break I spent a lot of time in Willard's The Great Omission. (Other favorites that I read while on soul.breaks include: Miller's Blue Like Jazz, Brother Lawrence's Practicing the Presence, Foster's Celebration of Discipline, Peterson's Traveling Light.)

My buddy Earl took a local soul.break recently. He's flickr'ing it here.

Do you ever take soul.breaks? What do you do to cultivate the disciplines of silence and solitude in your soul?

soul.breaks (well, a few of them that I actually blogged about):

• soul.break 5.07
• soul.break 11.05
• soul.break 2.04
• soul.break 11.03
• soul.break 7.03

Comments

[whipple]

I'm going to do the woods thing here soon.

Lots of walking, few people. Don't know how good it will be, I'm hoping to find space with few people for a while

[Joel Kurz]

I read Bro. Lawrence's Practicing the Presence on my last. It was done at St. Anselm's Abbey in DC so a book written by a monk was quite fitting.

Enjoy.

[adam feldman]

joel~ i have not been able to find b.lawrence's book in bookstores. the copy i read i checked out from my seminary library.

whipple~ nice, bro...

[john dobbs]

thanks for sharing this... it was helpeful to me.