Time Away Ordering My Private World, by Jay Kelly

What a time away with God does for me is hard to describe. Last Thursday and Friday I finally had a little getaway with God that I’ve been trying to schedule since December.

Taking the Edmonds/Kingston ferry in my pickup with a 40 pound backpack riding shotgun is a little glimpse of heaven. Driving to the Pacific coast gives me hours to unwind. There isn’t any radio station or cell phone reception once I pass Port Angeles and head into the Olympic National Forest. The forested areas are so thick and dark in the daytime that headlights must be on for safety. I prayed for each of the members of our ministry by name during the drive. I finally get to the Ranger Station at Lake Ozette and sign in. I get my bear-proof food container; I note the cougar confrontation warning signs, roll my eyes and head toward the coastal camping area.



The perfect camping spot was waiting for me on a grassy bluff about four feet above the beach with a perfect sunset view of the horizon with the waves crashing. I got set up and hopped in my hammock with my new favorite book, Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald. The author challenges our society’s trend toward honoring the most tired and “driven” among us regardless of the state of their inner private world. He asks the question, “How did we get to a day when stress and fatigue are almost a badge of success?”

He warns that outward success with inner neglect is like the ground deep under your feet being eroded by underground water movement. One day out of the blue a giant sinkhole can appear and swallow up everything that had been built upon that area. The bedrock of our lives is only as solid as the health of our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”

I felt called out, understood and challenged as the writer shared about his own life and how he deepened his private world in very practical ways. I’m only a few chapters into the book, but I’m excitedly writing in my journal again and praying more. I look forward to finishing the book and making some decisions that will help me find a depth and soulfulness to daily living that I have not known with any consistency.