I don’t know about you but I always seem to fill the time available to me. I seem to need to be doing something. Perhaps that’s what human beings are like?
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."
So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Mark 6:30-34
In Mark’s Gospel, Christ tells his disciples to do something. What he says is: “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” In other words, he tells them to take a break to devote some time to being rather than doing. Often Christ tells us the same thing.
Yet often we ignore this command. We want to follow Jesus and are willing to take action, but when it comes to rest, when it comes to Jesus telling us to take a break for a while, the protestant work ethic kicks in: We’ll do something big and brave, but rest is too simple and so we ignore what Jesus tells us.
Jesus has his reasons for inviting his disciples to rest. They have just returned from a mission. He had sent them out in pairs and in haste. They were not to encumber themselves with gear or supplies, but simply trust local hospitality to meet their needs. They were not to linger where they were not wanted. Instead, they were to be on the move, calling people to repentance, casting out demons, anointing the sick. It was work they had never done before, and once they returned, they must have been exhausted.
Many of us do critically important work and find ourselves exhausted. Yet we don't rest. We may even believe that we cannot or should not rest. We push ourselves in a way that we would never push others. Our life may be productive, we may check off everything from our daily “to do” list, but deep down we recognize something’s wrong, that we lack a sense of deep meaning, and so we feel cheated.
The disciples have returned from their travels, but the pace has not slackened. As the Gospel reports, “Many were coming and going, and they had no time even to eat.” Does that scene sound familiar to you? Is your workplace like that? Is your home like that? This is a common experience for people today. Many are coming and going, and they have no time even to eat.
Jesus listens to the disciples as they report on all they did and taught in the numerous places they visited. He does not, however, tell them to throw themselves into action again with even greater abandon. He doesn't ask them to do something difficult and dangerous or big and brave. Instead, what he asks for is disarming in its simplicity: “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while.”
Jesus invites us to rest, but we treat rest as a four-letter word. If people are resting, we may be suspicious of them. If we are resting, we may be suspicious of ourselves. There's always more to do, further ways to justify our existence by what we produce. In the face of this, Jesus smiles and says, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while.”
If asked, most of us could recite something of the pattern of our work as we engage in it day by day, week after week. I wonder, though: Can we do the same regarding our rest? Do we have patterns established that ensure that going off by ourselves to rest for a while is a reality for us, rather than simply a desire?
Some of us may lack such patterns of rest, but we can take steps to establish them. Gradually we can build into our lives rhythms of rest and solitude to balance out the busy rhythms that already pulsate so strongly. It can be done.
Monday is my day off I don’t answer the phone, I don’t check my E-mails, I don’t work, my mobile stays switched off. I just spend the day just being. Being at peace. Being with Julie.
The French mathematician and theologian Blaisé Pascal once said that “more than half this world's ills come from how people cannot sit in a room alone”. Our refusal to rest can hurt us, the people around us, and the endeavours to which we devote ourselves.
A lot of us try to function without the Rest Factor that Jesus wants us to include in our lives. We're busy, but the results are disappointing. When we factor in some rest we are not working as much, but what we do is more significant, more meaningful than it was when we were always on the go.
As human beings we may be willing to do something dangerous and daring or big and brave but we should also take time out from doing to rest and just to be… after all we are human beings not human doings!
Many Blessings,
Gareth
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."
So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Mark 6:30-34
In Mark’s Gospel, Christ tells his disciples to do something. What he says is: “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” In other words, he tells them to take a break to devote some time to being rather than doing. Often Christ tells us the same thing.
Yet often we ignore this command. We want to follow Jesus and are willing to take action, but when it comes to rest, when it comes to Jesus telling us to take a break for a while, the protestant work ethic kicks in: We’ll do something big and brave, but rest is too simple and so we ignore what Jesus tells us.
Jesus has his reasons for inviting his disciples to rest. They have just returned from a mission. He had sent them out in pairs and in haste. They were not to encumber themselves with gear or supplies, but simply trust local hospitality to meet their needs. They were not to linger where they were not wanted. Instead, they were to be on the move, calling people to repentance, casting out demons, anointing the sick. It was work they had never done before, and once they returned, they must have been exhausted.
Many of us do critically important work and find ourselves exhausted. Yet we don't rest. We may even believe that we cannot or should not rest. We push ourselves in a way that we would never push others. Our life may be productive, we may check off everything from our daily “to do” list, but deep down we recognize something’s wrong, that we lack a sense of deep meaning, and so we feel cheated.
The disciples have returned from their travels, but the pace has not slackened. As the Gospel reports, “Many were coming and going, and they had no time even to eat.” Does that scene sound familiar to you? Is your workplace like that? Is your home like that? This is a common experience for people today. Many are coming and going, and they have no time even to eat.
Jesus listens to the disciples as they report on all they did and taught in the numerous places they visited. He does not, however, tell them to throw themselves into action again with even greater abandon. He doesn't ask them to do something difficult and dangerous or big and brave. Instead, what he asks for is disarming in its simplicity: “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while.”
Jesus invites us to rest, but we treat rest as a four-letter word. If people are resting, we may be suspicious of them. If we are resting, we may be suspicious of ourselves. There's always more to do, further ways to justify our existence by what we produce. In the face of this, Jesus smiles and says, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while.”
If asked, most of us could recite something of the pattern of our work as we engage in it day by day, week after week. I wonder, though: Can we do the same regarding our rest? Do we have patterns established that ensure that going off by ourselves to rest for a while is a reality for us, rather than simply a desire?
Some of us may lack such patterns of rest, but we can take steps to establish them. Gradually we can build into our lives rhythms of rest and solitude to balance out the busy rhythms that already pulsate so strongly. It can be done.
Monday is my day off I don’t answer the phone, I don’t check my E-mails, I don’t work, my mobile stays switched off. I just spend the day just being. Being at peace. Being with Julie.
The French mathematician and theologian Blaisé Pascal once said that “more than half this world's ills come from how people cannot sit in a room alone”. Our refusal to rest can hurt us, the people around us, and the endeavours to which we devote ourselves.
A lot of us try to function without the Rest Factor that Jesus wants us to include in our lives. We're busy, but the results are disappointing. When we factor in some rest we are not working as much, but what we do is more significant, more meaningful than it was when we were always on the go.
As human beings we may be willing to do something dangerous and daring or big and brave but we should also take time out from doing to rest and just to be… after all we are human beings not human doings!
Many Blessings,
Gareth
