Why We Need: Retreat
“I don’t like retreating.” Captain Dick Winters (Band of Brothers, Ep. 4)
A few years ago, I hit a point of serious depletion. I was officially in midlife, well past a decade of marriage, multiple children, increasing leadership and management responsibilities, pretty significant travel and meeting schedule. Things were beginning to wear down and crack. Important things: energy, emotions, enthusiasm, relationships. I could sense I needed to pull back.
But we’re conditioned to view retreats as weakness, if not flat-out failure.
Like Winters as he ordered Easy Company to retreat in Holland during the Second World War, retreating feels like a defeat to us, like an admission that we don’t have what it takes to press through, overcome, achieve…win. At best, perhaps, it’s an unproductive pocket of time that’s a luxury we just can’t afford.
Until we realize that if we keep going as is, things around us will keep going too…and not for the better.
The English word retreat comes from a Latin root meaning “to draw back.” A withdrawal is hardly a failure; it’s a necessary response to circumstances. When you don’t have the necessary force to win a battle, you draw back. When your strategic plan has run up against unforeseen developments, you pull back and pivot.
When we hit a point of human weariness because of the realities of aging, of grief, of frenetic pace, of the burden of leadership, of an unforeseen transition, of parenting challenges, of marriage strains…it is wisdom, not weakness, to invest in the fortifying and clarifying act of purposefully withdrawing. Of resting, of strengthening, of restoring vision and rediscovering joys.
I thought for a time that I was actually accomplishing this through the frequent conferences, conventions, and other professional confabs that many of us attend, viewing the break from the normal rhythms as enough of a “recharge” to pack up and sally forth back into the daily grind.
A true personal retreat, however, is different. It’s an intentional withdrawal to a place where the freedom of unscripted life can be experienced, where unplanned discoveries and encounters can happen. It’s a time, a place, where even if others are present, there is opportunity for solitude, when the still, soft voice of the Spirit can actually be heard because the mind and the heart are calmed. It’s a withdrawal from scheduled demands to sacred desisting.
All Canyon Pathways retreat experiences are curated with this in mind. We come to these gatherings with different backgrounds, various experiences, but a common desire for belonging, understanding, and rest.
The minimal scripting, maximized freedom, and dedicated attention to your spiritual needs opens up the mind and heart to receive from God not just rejuvenation, but a revelation of your sonship, in the presence of other sons growing in theirs.
Life as a son among other sons. So that we can lead as a father to those who need fathers. We invite you into this experience of freedom.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19