“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” ~ Matthew 11:28
I wake up with the usual battle raging in my head every time it’s my day to “run away.” My practical side points out all the important things waiting to be done and whispers, “A responsible person gets her work done before she takes a day off.” My heart side reminds me that the most important thing of all is actually a Person—and I’ve committed to meet with Him today. The phone rings, and yet another responsibility threatens to pull me back into the ebb and flow of daily living.
But, for almost a decade now, I’ve been spending one day alone with God each month, and still I’m bombarded—every single month—with mental pictures of all the responsibilities I’m walking away from. “It’s always hard to leave.” “There is always too much to do.” It takes courage to pick up my TAWG (Time Alone With God) bag and walk myself out of the house and into the car—but I do it.
The worship CD I chose the night before is waiting for me as I start the car. As the music begins, my heart starts to sing. “You chose time with God over all that stuff at home!”
The fact that chores await me seems less urgent once I’m on my way. I stop and splurge on my favorite drink and speak out loud to my King, “Forgive me, Lord. It’s still hard to leave even though I want to be with You, and I know this is Your will for me. Bless this day, Father, with Your Presence and Your words. I give myself to You. Use me as You choose, teach me as You please, and help me to set aside all else for the pure joy of being ‘just us’ today.”
Then I sing out loud in the car. And I do mean loud. Sometimes I literally weep for the joy of being on an adventure with the Lover of my Soul. With each mile and each song, the tensions from the week seep away. The belief that this time is more important than all else reasserts itself. I’m running away for a day with the One who loves me most, and life is very, very good.
The drive to the ocean is about 45 minutes, just about the length of an average worship CD. I love music, so when I’m on a TAWG day, every word is heard, every harmony enjoyed. The drive is part of the time spent with the Lord. It’s musical prayer. It’s heart readjustment. It’s surrender and a reminder and victory depending on the song. The worship sets the tone for the day, and it’s so nice to sing and focus on God.
What I do when I arrive at the ocean varies. I might sit in my favorite little café and order a pot of tea. If I choose to linger in a café that day, my Bible comes out, and I study. Perhaps I might read another chapter in A. W. Tozer’s, Holiness of God, my current TAWG book. I underline. I journal. I sit. I wait for God to still my soul.
When the weather allows, I walk a path beside the ocean, admiring waves crashing on rock and seagulls arched in the skyway overhead. I sit. I admire. I listen. God stills my soul, and we are together, He and I, in the midst of His creation. It’s a day with a simple agenda: be with God, love, and be loved. The renewal and the resetting of priorities occurs each time I “stop” and recalibrate my heart.
Why it’s hard to stop and run away for a day alone with God —and why you should anyway:
1. Our world tells us that being busy is synonymous with being important and needed.
Stopping can feel lazy and negligent, especially when the accuser, Satan, whispers those words to us.
Truth: The enemy of your soul would love to keep you so busy doing “good things” that you never do the best thing: spending actual time with your King. Peter warns us, “Be self-controlled and alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). We have an active enemy, and the last thing he wants us to do is the most important thing: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:29-30). It is neither lazy nor negligent to spend time with God.
Ponder with me, though. How do you show others you really, deeply love them? You listen to them. You spend time with them. You get to know them. A day alone with a beloved friend or spouse is a joy. It’s a declaration of their importance. Jesus said loving God is the most important command. Spending quality time with God is obedience to the first and greatest commandment!
2. We often don’t feel “worth” it.
Spend time and money, go out to a café on my own to just read, and walk for a day? I don’t deserve a day like that.
Truth: God loves you. “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16-19). His love for you is wider, longer, higher, and deeper than you can ever know. It surpasses knowledge. He Loves You! Delight in that truth with a day set apart just for Him.
3. The thought of time alone with God can feel frightening, especially without a specific agenda.
You may wonder what on earth I would do. What if it’s boring? What if there are no inspiring words from God”?
Truth: When I first started this practice of a TAWG day, I was bored. I did look at my watch. Stopping for a long period of time was so foreign to me, I didn’t know how. It took time and practice for a TAWG day to become a familiar joy. Now, I love my day away and find it too short. Even now, I don’t always walk away with profound truths or spiritual revelations. Sometimes I just read my Bible, journal my thoughts, whisper “I love You,” and I am content with that. I fill it with quiet, listening, and availability. What God does with my offering is up to Him.
Remember, your TAWG day doesn’t have to be far or cost money. If a day away is physically or financially impossible at your place in life, consider an “at-home getaway” even for a few hours spending time basking in your Father’s presence. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Just do that. Run to Him, and see, over time, how He chooses to meet you there. You will be changed, of that I am sure.
