{"id":3952,"date":"2012-12-09T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2012-12-09T11:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=3952"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:41","slug":"secret-hideaway-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/secret-hideaway-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"SECRET HIDEAWAY – Mental Withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The current scheduled post falls on a Sunday, and that means it’s a “Spiritual Sunday” post.\u00a0 I’ve invited my friend; retired pastor Dr. Calvin Metcalf to offer something enlightening.\u00a0 I think this is a message a lot of us can use right now.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Dr.There is a lonely place to which hurting people sometimes go.\u00a0 It is called “withdrawal.”\u00a0 They go thinking they have found a safe haven from their woes.\u00a0 They wrap themselves in an emotional cocoon as a cushion against their pain.\u00a0 They internalize their grief and often get locked into a rut of only one way of thinking.\u00a0 Their imaginations play tricks on them as they lose touch with reality.\u00a0 Many times withdrawal causes folk to lash out at those who love them most and could care for them best.\u00a0 It is not easy dealing with life’s complications, but retreating within oneself does not make it easier.\u00a0 People who turn inward to lick their own wounds have a limited source of healing.<\/p>\n

Living with loneliness is a pain our Lord does not wish us to have.\u00a0 His invitation in times of despair is quite obvious.\u00a0 His friendship is as close to us as our ability to pray and seek His face.\u00a0 His word becomes our comfort, His presence becomes our strength, and His promises become our hope.<\/p>\n

Whenever we tend to withdraw He wants to share our inner feelings.\u00a0 He wants to correct and caress our awkward thoughts.\u00a0 Because He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, He understands the deepest wounds of our broken hearts.\u00a0 If we invite Him into the secret hideaway of our souls, He will help us keep our perspective.\u00a0 He will not remove the possibility of pain, but He will guide us through its adventure.<\/p>\n

Of course, there is value in withdrawal if we understand the dynamics of our loneliness.\u00a0 Being alone can give us time to sort through our thoughts.\u00a0 It can give us a humble and contrite heart.\u00a0 The silence of our soul is a time for God to speak to us.\u00a0 On several occasions Jesus had to withdraw from the crowds in order to have time with God the Father.\u00a0 It was a constructive retreat from public scrutiny and the clamoring demands upon His time.\u00a0 He came back with renewed energy for His messianic assignments.<\/p>\n

Our Lord is a good model of mixing our public and private needs.\u00a0 We must never get so public that we lose our depth of concentration.\u00a0 Neither should we become so private that loneliness conquers our happiness.\u00a0 May our symptoms of withdrawal be occasions for hearing His still small voice because He is the Lord of our inner sanctum and the salvation within our secret hideaway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The current scheduled post falls on a Sunday, and that means it’s a “Spiritual Sunday” post.  I’ve invited my friend; retired pastor Dr. Calvin Metcalf to offer something enlightening.  I think this is a message a lot of us can use right now. * * * * *  There is a lonely place to which … Continue reading “SECRET HIDEAWAY – Mental Withdrawal”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-3952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-inspirational"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21574,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952\/revisions\/21574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}