Happy New Year!

How did you see in the new year? With friends or family? In a large party gathering or shared exclusively with someone special? Or perhaps, you missed it all together for an early night in bed! I saw the new year in from the inside of a tiny convent tucked away somewhere in Newcastle. It wasn't where I expected to be, but through a string of events I ended up there, with five nuns and about 20 others, enjoying the peace of the presence of Christ - Immanuel God with us! Sometimes God whispers to us through the cracks in our busy lives - drawing us away from the humdrum of life to sit at his feet and listen to his voice. Jesus knew the importance of time alone with his father, that he had to withdraw from time to time from the needs and demands of his followers, and early in the morning or late into the night find solitary places...the desert, the mountains. It's a good principle to learn to apply in our lives, it refreshes us, it equips us, it builds spiritual character and it places Jesus in the rightful place of honour in our lives. So for 2013 my challenge is to find the time to slip through the gaps in the rush of life and spend quality time alone with Christ. 

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Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.