Occasionally I will hear people claim that, in order to experience true spiritual renewal, you need to escape from the daily grind, with all its disruptions and distractions, and spend some time with God in quiet solitude. For them growing closer to God means retreating from—or better yet, rising above—the mundane and seemingly “unspiritual” things of everyday life and intentionally seeking the higher, purer things of the soul.

To be sure, there are times (preferably at regular intervals) when, as Jesus did, we withdraw from the world in order to commune one-on-one with the Almighty. However, we need to be careful that we are not withdrawing from the world out of disdain for it. Keep in mind that ours is a God who so loved this world that God chose to enter it. Ours is a God who did not retreat from human flesh-and-blood, despite its weaknesses and limitations, but actually become one of us. Ours is a God who promised us not only a new heaven, but also a new earth!

Put another way, it is okay to take a break from this troublesome world in order to spend some time in prayer, just as long as we remember that part of our responsibility is to pray precisely for this troublesome world. It is okay to turn off the evening news (which is usually depressing these days) in order to spend some time reading the good news of the gospels, just as long as we remember that our study of Scripture should inform the very things we watch on the evening news—our business practices, our political decisions, and our involvement in current affairs.

If our spirituality is to be genuine, then its chief aim cannot be to escape from life altogether. True spiritual renewal is always seeking fresh ways to reengage with the world. After all, our relationship with God may be personal, but it is never private!