Withdrawal

There is a concept of Christianity being taught today that makes no sense--though I wish it did, since I am by nature a hermit. The idea is that the best way to know and experience God is to get off by yourself, withdraw from society, pray and read your Bible, and thus you will sense God's presence more than anyone else possibly could. Now, it is true that you need time alone with God. Jesus always took time to go off by Himself for times of prayer and spiritual renewal. But the idea that we should become monks and hermits and withdraw from society and thus reach some level of super spirituality has no biblical foundation whatsoever. If that was the ultimate good life spiritually, why didn't the Lord instruct His disciples to just say in the upper room and pray once they had been given the Holy Spirit on Pentecost? Why didn't He tell the Apostle Paul to just go be a hermit after his conversion? Why did He tell His disciples to go into all the world and be His witnesses, make disciples in every nation?
You cannot be what God has called you to be--light and salt, a witness to the world--by withdrawing from people. God empowers His children to sense His presence, draw on His power, and touch the world with His love--not go off on their own and get to know Him more deeply. No one in Scripture was ever told that their purpose in life was to isolate themselves from the world in order to know God more completely. What they were told to do was to go into all the world that they may know Him more deeply by drawing on His power in the midst of the world and its needy people and by participating in His suffering in the midst of their ministry. In that way they would be conformed to His likeness and leave a fragrance of His presence wherever they went. True holiness and a deep relationship with Christ is not found living in isolation but living in the presence of a dark and desperate world with Jesus by your side.