We don’t always know what is happening in our souls. The systems of oppression into which we were born have trained us not to know. This training is often well-meant. Parents and teachers, often likewise caught in the oppression but only vaguely aware of their predicament, try to “help” us obey its rules so that we will be “safe” within the system.

This is why going off to a “lonely place” and listening courageously to the truth of our lives, as Jesus did, is so vital. If we go there once, we are different forever. When we keep going there, we return with treasures of integrity and strength that bless everyone around us.

As we do this powerful spiritual work, the net of oppressions begins to unravel. Together, we feel it slip. Together, we shake it off and dance on its shreds and turn to each other rejoicing.

Your lonely place can be a particular chair at home or at work, or even a certain way of breathing deeply and listening openly wherever you are in any given moment. No one can predict what you are about to understand or to become. No one else can bring to our world the healing truths you are about to discover.