I have recently been reading about John being exiled to the island of Patmos. Speaking of John … does anyone besides me confuse John the Baptist and the Apostle John? 

Have you ever noticed that no one in the Bible is called by initials? Like, why can't John the Baptist be "JtB"?  And the Apostle John be "AJ"? That would seem to make things so much simpler. But no, it just says "John" and then I have no clue – are we talking about Jesus' cousin? Or the other John, the apostle? For the sake of this blog, I'm talking about the apostle … yea, that John.

There are numerous commentaries on why John was exiled and who sent him to Patmos. Make no mistake … God sent John to Patmos. Oh, he may have used someone else to help the cause, but it was all part of God's plan. John was exiled to the prison island of Patmos for refusing to stop preaching the Gospel. According to tradition, he was sentenced to death by being thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil. When that didn’t harm him at all, he was sent to Patmos where there was no one to preach to. While there, he was visited by the Lord who commanded him to write the book we know as Revelation and then took him to the end of the age to witness everything. I believe that is why John was at Patmos … pure and simply to receive and write the book of Revelation. 

Do you ever feel like you are on an island? Do you ever feel alone? I am an only child and on more than one occasion, espcially when I was growing up, I knew what it felt like to be alone. There are still times now as an adult that I find God puts me on an "island."

There is most certainly an ebb and flow to life. There are times when you are surrounded by crowds of folks. You can't seem to find one moment of alone time – at work or at home, there is a always a crowd around.

Then there are other times when everything and everyone seems to be stripped away. You are completely alone … maybe more than you would choose to be. I have often wondered about why. Why is it that God moves people in and out of our lives? What is he trying to accomplish during the periods of long solitude?

That's when the story of the Apostle John came to mind … I wonder if sometimes God moves us out of all that is familiar to us. He takes us away from our current surroundings. He ushers the "crowd" one by one out of our lives. He strips everything away … until there is only us … and God. Maybe that's the answer. 

Maybe he has to get us to that point where he can finally have our undivided attention. Maybe it is there in our "aloneness," in the solitude and silence, that he can begin to show us greater things.

What is most amazing is that maybe it is there, and only there, that we really listen to what he has to say. When there are no distractions, no noise, no one else clamoring for our attention … perhaps then we really listen. We begin to hear things a little more clearly.

In John's case, the solitude was most definitely for a greater purpose. It was to write the Book of Revelation and to stand before the very end of the age and see everything that is going to occur. I bet that made the writing a little easier, huh? 

As for me or you … Well, I am not always sure what greater things God has in store, but I do never doubt that he has a purpose … So, if you're on an island and life is a little too quiet, perk up your ears because that is when God speaks the loudest.