By Jonathan Round.
A very good friend recently went to a “retreat centre”. I confess that I made some low grade banter about the retreat process. Both for the banter and not being more supportive of the retreat/reflective process, I am indeed sorry.
This also got me thinking. As a general rule, I try to avoid criticising anything I don’t know about, especially those things I should have tried. But I seem to have developed a negative view of the process of retreat. This view has probably become more entrenched, bringing negative associations along with the mention of the R-word.
A while ago, when discussing whether he should go to a Christian conference or not, a friend of mine said he was planning to go, but that he should really actually do some of the things he decided on doing at the last one. Underlying this is the concept that our mission is to bring the Kingdom of God into the world rather than have further time away in a Christian enclave.
Bible verse pickers can have a field day in this area of study. For every time that Jesus withdraws for a bit of time with his father, there are more where he decides to minister to crowds or disciple his disciples. Most poignantly is the story of the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28) when Jesus, Peter and John have gone to a mountaintop. Jesus’s glory is unveiled. So powerful is the experience that Peter recommends building some shelters to preserve the moment. Instead, Jesus comes down from the mountain and is back with the crowds the next day.
Reading a bit more into this, and the many other times Jesus has alone or with his disciples, suggests a few things:-
- You can’t escape the need to get away.
- Times alone are about re-establishing reality, energy, purpose, vision, and relationship.
- These times alone are not meant to be permanent.
So, retreat is essential, if just for a time. And probably it’s a lot more time than I give it – after all, Jesus seemed to find them pretty valuable, and He was already pretty close to His Father – so I should expect to need such times even more. But this cycle of retreat – doing – retreat – doing seems rather up and down. Is there no way of running things a bit more stably? Do you even need to go away to retreat? And how much are the surroundings essential?
I try to run my life in a sustainable way. By this I am not referring to recycling cardboard, but rather that if external circumstances cause balance to be altered, there should be a correcting mechanism. If the demands of work are too much one week, I find a way of recharging in the evenings. If they are too much for a month, I need to change the demands. Homeostasis is the biological equivalent.
For the retreat-doing-retreat-doing cycle this pattern is different. It appears we must act less like an electric train – power delivered when needed, none stored, never empty; and more like a car – fuel added at intervals, emptied according to requirements. While day to day spiritual topping up is useful, we also need proper times of complete refilling. At these we see God more as He is, we see ourselves as we are rather than what we might hope to be, we are changed, we are re-envisioned.
And this degree of focus may have to be somewhere geographically different. Where the washing doesn’t need doing, where emails go unanswered, where the diary is empty, where the mind might unwind, where thoughts can be inspired, run at their own pace and find whatever route is best. This brings sustainability and balance, without which the rest of life can resemble a hamster on a wheel.
It seems that retreat is essential for going forward.