GROWING TOGETHER

By now you may have guessed that the theme of this Perspective issue is personal retreat. We do this in part to showcase the wonderful new RENOVARÉ Resource by Emilie Griffin, Wilderness Time, featured on page five. But we are after more than the promotion of a book. All of us committed to the RENOVARÉ vision are seeking to integrate times of solitude and retreat into our personal lives, and (given our world and its reigning values) we need all the encouragement and help we can get in this matter. So, in this page devoted to practice, let me suggest some of the varied venues for solitude that are within the reach of everyone.

• Take a pre-dawn walk.
Listen to the awakening sounds of your world, whether city or country. Give the coming day to God. Listen for his guidance over the labor of the day. It is an ancient discipline to welcome the new day in faith and worship. "O Lord, in the morning thou dost hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for thee, and watch" (Ps. 5:3). "And in the morning, a great while before day, he [Jesus] rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed" (Mark 2:35). In the words of the old German hymn, "When morning gilds the skies, My heart awaking cries, May Jesus Christ be praised!"

• For one month leave your car radio off and turn your morning commute into a mini-retreat.
Place your children and spouse into the loving care of God. Pray for the person in the car ahead of you. Consider the lilies of the field and how they differ from the frantic scramble of human activity around you. Try driving in the slow lane for a change. Bless those who cut in front of you; bless and do not curse them. Listen for divine impressions on upcoming meetings, relationships in the office, creative solutions to troubling business situations, and more.

• In the middle of the morning or afternoon, take a five minute worship break.
Enjoy a fresh-cut flower on your desk or a tranquil picture or saying on the wall. Stroll around the office building (or home or field or school), prayerfully placing every person who works there into the strong, protective arms of God. Tap your toe or finger to the tune of asimple worship song. Enjoy a fresh cup of coffee and with every sip ask for the inflow of God's warmth.

• Limit your speech to an absolute minimum for one day.
See what you learn about yourself; for example, how frantically you depend upon words to manipulate situations. Watch for how words bless and encourage, and how they wound and destroy. For the future consider ways that your words can be few and full.

• Read one chapter of a devotional classic as the children are taking a nap.
While pondering the reading, savor the "aloneness" and silence.

• Go to the inner city for a social justice retreat.
Talk with the homeless, learning from them rather than preaching to them. Fast so that in a small way you may enter into the gnawing hunger of those who live an eternal, compulsory fast. Walk the streets, listening to the whimpering "songs from the slums." Consider what it would mean to live without hope. Without trying to solve every problem, listen for any divine guidance you may be given for action.

• Make your next plane flight or bus trip a personal retreat.
Watch people. Listen. Pray. Read through a good book in one sitting.

• Have an experience of "watching".
Arise at 2:00 a.m., light a single candle as a