Superman finally got his girl in1980. The first Superman movie starring Christopher Reeve came out two years earlier, but Lois Lane (played by Margot Kidder) wasn’t swayed by Clark Kent’s charms. In Superman II, though, Clark revealed himself as Superman and really impressed Lois by flying her to his ice palace in the arctic. As he was showing off his Fortress of Solitude, he said this secluded get away “Helped me find out who I really was and what I had to do.”
I facilitate a peer advisory group for Christian CEO and business owners called C12. Every month we conduct a self-assessment called our Life and Leadership Balance Wheel. We rate our current effectiveness on a score of one to ten in eight areas:
· Walk with God
· Biblical Community
· Personal Finances
· Marriage & Family
· Fitness & Nutrition
· Rest & Retreat
· Fun & Recreation
· Discipling others
The area that is most stubbornly low is rest and retreat. Maybe it’s not surprising that people with a high drive to succeed have trouble getting enough rest. There is always another call to make, idea to write down, sale to close, or piece of equipment to move. And the drive for these folks extends beyond work: their hobbies are intense and consuming, and they go full gas. So, the rest score is often low on our balance wheels. And retreat? We are the kind of people who advance, not retreat. Most of us don’t even know what it means. We could offer a definition of the word, if pressed, but as far as a practical application in our lives? Nope. We’re not really sure what retreat would look like or where it would fit. All 168 hours in our weeks are already full. Too full. We have a hard time getting enough sleep, let alone spending our time awake doing…nothing?
Yet as Christian leaders we have to acknowledge that Jesus found great value in solitude. Dallas Willard wrote that in order to have the effective life that Jesus had we must, “Learn from Christ how to live our total lives, how to invest all our time and our energies of mind and body as he did. We must learn how to follow his preparations, the disciplines for life in God’s rule that enabled him to receive his Father’s constant and effective support while doing his will.” Joel Brooks says, “You can’t do what Jesus did unless you do what Jesus did.” By which he means the disciplines, prayer, solitude and communing with the father that Jesus did before he healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the hungry and saved the world.
I have long been fascinated by the story in Mathew four of the temptation of Jesus. “The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days he was hungry. And the tempter came to him and said. . .” For years I thought that the devil came after forty days because by then he was very weak. But perhaps that is wrong. Since this experience is orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, maybe the devil was prevented from tempting Jesus until he had completed six weeks of solitude so he would be strong enough to effectively resist. Could it be that retreat and solitude which appear to be unproductive may be the key to conquering our toughest challenges?
John chapter 4 tells of Jesus meeting with a Samaritan woman. After their conversation, his disciples return with some dinner. When they encourage him to eat, he tells them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” I think that in his 40 days of solitude he learned to depend entirely on God. He discovered how to access spiritual power which he used for physical, moral, and courageous nourishment. Jesus’ incredible performance and impeccable behavior were grounded in a life of solitude where he learned to tap into resources that don’t come from other people or the physical world.
Training consists of three elements: instruction, performance, and correction. Think of a basketball player learning to shoot free throws. The coach will provide some instruction on proper technique: where to stand, how to bend the knees, where to look, what to do with the hands, and proper follow through. Then the player takes a few practice shots. As the coach observes the player performing the free throw, he or she can provide some correction: keep your elbows in closer to the body, look a little higher on the backboard, etc. Instruction, performance, correction. While coaches may give some suggestions during a game, that isn’t where improvements come from. It is in the gym with no one looking that the specific instruction and the specific correction come. Basketball players set aside a special time and place to get better. They spend hours training so that they can perform at their peak during the few minutes of the game when it really counts.
Superman said that in solitude he found out “who he really was and what he had to do.” That sounds like a pretty good launching pad for effectiveness and success. How much solitude is built into your week?
In solitude and retreat we discover the deeper resources which lead to great performance.
Note: There will be at least two more parts of this teaching on solitude: Next week, every social interaction includes performative, evaluative and competitive elements. We need to disconnect from those elements to get clarity and insight. The following week I’ll share my experiences with passive and active solitude and how I use them both.
Insightful!