What's grandma doing at the dunes?

I love that quote. There is a connection here. I'm going to take a little risk and share something that could be perceived negatively. If so, so be it. Two things converged for me recently. First, I read this quote:

"The most important spiritual discipline for pastors who talk about God a lot is solitude and silence; learning to be quiet and create space for God." - Dallas Williard

Second, the elders at Suncrest give the ministry staff a day a year for a personal retreat and Greg asked us to take it in May this year. Typically I will take a day and do a lot of praying and planning in my ministry areas (flowcharts and everything). This year, however, in light of the quote and some other things I decided to take a day for silence and solitude and spent it at the dunes. Now, I recognize the distinct privilege I have here in that the vast majority of people do not have an opportunity to take a work day for such a thing as this. The reality for a pastor though is that if you give spiritually and you don't take in enough you starve to death. And I was getting close to that. God used my time of solitude in great ways. He clarified some things for me as well as spoke into my life in a great way. It wasn't that He had not been speaking, I just wasn't doing a great job of listening.

I thought maybe God had something else in mind though because as I sat on the beach and was writing some things down, a guy walked by and asked, "Doing a little journaling?"

"Um, yeah," I responded. Deeply spiritual I know. We did a little small talk and he walked on. I thought at first, well, maybe God wants me to have a spiritual conversation with this guy. I didn't like that idea because I really wanted to be alone. But, I wanted to be obedient so I talked and listened and the conversation headed nowhere and before long I was headed on down the beach to a very satisfying day alone with God. The tank isn't getting close to E anymore.