Each individual's motivation for going on a retreat is very personal. Some are at a crisis point and need to make an important decision, some want to draw closer to God, some to work through issues and to seek God's help, some are curious, some want a place of quiet and rest, some come to unburden and others to seek renewal or more intimate contact with God. The reasons are as varied as the people. Though there is no magical solutions and problems are not always resolved, invariably the person is touched in some healing or encouraging way. Underlying issues often come to the surface as people learn to open themselves more fully to God. As issues are dealt with, the situation may be transformed or the problem may disappear. What also happens is that the presence of God becomes more palpable and life becomes easier to face.
The main purpose of a retreat is to facilitate an encounter between God and the person. Such encounters are unlimited in their variety. Many experience love and acceptance, forgiveness and release from past hurts. One woman shared that she had left the church as a teen but now in middle age wanted to return. Still, she could find no connection or peace in the church and someone had recommended a retreat. On Friday evening, she read a brief passage from Isaiah and she was encouraged to see it as God's love letter to her. The following morning, tears were streaming down her face and she could hardly share the overpowering love that she had received.
Many times issues surface that the retreatant had not intended to work with or might even have forgotten. On an eight-day retreat, a recently retired minister shared her childhood abuse and how that abuse had been repeated at the hands of psychiatrists and psychologists. Her self-image was very poor. Over the week, she experienced the healing presence of Jesus in her early abuse experiences and began to feel as if a huge burden had been lifted and she finally felt free.
A professor at a Christian college had a few days to put in between conferences in Toronto. Having heard about retreats, he was curious. The weekend challenged him to the very core of his being. Considering his Christian belief to be chiefly a matter of the mind, he confessed that his encounter with God, over the five days, was every bit as profound as his earlier conversion. "How could I have been so wrong?" he asked, and "What am I going to tell my wife and my colleagues?"
One of the focal points of retreats is the awareness that we are the beloved, the uniquely created, formed and redeemed of God and that each one of us is precious to Him. Each person is a unique expression of God and is encouraged to live out of the potential that God has already created within. We live as if propelled by God into the fullness of that creation. Doing becomes an expression of being, of who we were created and formed to be.
