A fuller context of the paragraph I pulled would be this:
There is nothing that requires more energy of the typical American Christian than the discipline of doing nothing. The hardest thing you can get anyone to do is to do nothing. We are addicted to our world, addicted to talk. Talk is the primary way we have of managing our image for ourselves and for others. You may have a perfectly intelligent person who is alone and, when they do something stupid, they will talk to themselves and explain to themselves why they did that. Believe it or not, controlling our tongue is very important. James said that "anyone who can control their tongue is perfect." How do you control it? You get it to stop. You discover that you can breathe without talking. You discover that life goes on.
The issue is the same with solitude. The problem with solitude is not being alone, it is convincing ourselves that we are unnecessary, that the world will not collapse if we go away. Solitude is the discipline of letting go of our self-importance, letting go of our belief that we are necessary for the world to continue.
I've read several books by Willard, and one of the things he's big on is the notion of "spiritual disciplines," being very quiet and still and allowing the word of the Lord to come in the quiet of one's heart being one of those disciplines.
His point -- made here and elsewhere -- is that people seem not able to just sit still and do nothing. And I confess it is difficult for me. I've tried sitting in my office here, door closed, no PC, no radio ... and just close my eyes, focus on God, and do nothing. It's hard! There's something in me that rebels ... my body starts to physically twitch. And my mind goes absolutely bananas!
So I was unfair posting only a snippet of that. I can see how you would read that tiny paragraph I posted and draw some of the conclusions you drew.
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Who again is Ian Stewart?
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