Continuing on the subject of "The Sabbath", and seeking rest for ourselves by seeking and dwelling in silence and solitude, contemplation and meditating on God's creation, I share another article that will hopefully and prayerfully continue to speak to and minister to us on this important discipline.
In "The Gospel of Mark"- 6:31, Jesus says to his Disciples, “Come away to a place all by yourselves and rest a little while with me.” How much more in this fast paced, technological run amok society, do we need this admonition from Jesus in for our weary, margin-less, and tired lives today? Simply and succinctly put, it's a matter of life Vs. death.
The main article below by Dr. Joseph S. Pagano, brings to us more truth on the importance of rest and taking a Sabbath.
"Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil."—Carl Jung
"You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life" - Dallas Willard
"Hurry is the the great enemy of the spiritual life in our day. Hurry destroys the soul." - John Ortberg
As a lead-in to the main article, John Ortberg, in a Leadership Today article wrote the following:
During one hectic season of ministry, Mark notes of the disciples, "For many
were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat."
Far too many
people involved in ministry think of this as a life verse, as if God will reward
the hectic one day with, "What a life you had! Many were coming and going, and
you had no leisure even to eat. Well done!"
Not quite. Jesus was aware of
this problem, and he constantly withdrew from crowds and activities. He taught
the same to his followers. In one instance, when they returned from a busy time
of ministry, filled with adrenaline, he told them, "Come away to a deserted
place all by yourselves and rest a while."
If you want to follow someone, you
can't go faster than the one who is leading; following Jesus cannot be done at a
sprint. Jesus was often busy but he was never hurried. Being busy is an outer
condition; being hurried is a sickness of the soul.
Jesus never went about
the busyness of his ministry in a way that severed the life-giving connection
between himself and his Father.
He never did it in a way that interfered with
his ability to give love when that was what was called for. He observed a
regular rhythm of withdrawal from activity, for solitude and prayer.
Exploring that rhythm is exactly what the “communal spiritual discipline of
slowing down” is all about.
Come Away To A Place All By Yourselves and Rest A Little While With Me. We are in many ways a weary people. Literally and figuratively, we are
tired.
A survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that 47
million American adults suffer from sleep deprivation. That’s almost a quarter
of the adult population in America. That’s a lot of weary people. And it is a
serious problem. Fatigue and exhaustion can have serious consequences. Lack of
sleep can affect our physical and mental health. It can also be deadly. Sixty
percent of licensed drivers reported that they drove cars while drowsy. Fatigue
has contributed to many auto accidents and fatalities. Sleep deprivation is a
serious problem, and it has a number of causes: from lifestyle choices, to work,
to illnesses, to sleeping disorders. The results of the survey are clear: many
Americans, too many Americans, both adults and children, are not getting enough
sleep. We are, quite literally, a weary people.
However, we really didn’t
need a survey to tell us this. Just ask someone how they are doing these days,
and listen to what they say. Have you ever heard people say things like: “I’m
exhausted.” “I’m running myself ragged.” “I’m wiped out.” “I’m spent.” “I’m
running on empty.” “I just need a nap.” “I need caffeine.”
People are
tired these days and they will tell you so. We are over-worked, over-committed,
over-extended, stretched-thin, stressed-out, and burnt-out. We are too busy and
we are too tired, and we will tell you about it. It seems like there is some
kind of strange competition going on where we try to outdo each other with how
busy and how tired we are. In a curious way, busyness has become a socially
desirable good.
Kerby Anderson, in an essay “Time and Busyness,” puts it
this way, “Being busy is chic and trendy. Pity the poor person who has an
organized life and a livable schedule. Everyone, it seems, is running out of
time.”
We are a busy, busy people these days, and ask somebody how they
are doing, and you’re more than likely going to hear about how worn-out they
are. We didn’t need a national survey to tell us what we already knew: we are,
in many ways, a weary people.
The pace of modern life has picked up, with
keyboards clicking and computers crunching and cell phones chirping with their
instantaneous messages around the globe. Contradicting the optimistic
predictions of people in the 1950s and 1960s, these technological feats have not
led to more leisure time for Americans. Quite the contrary. Most people are
busier than ever. The average workweek has increased rather than decreased in
the last thirty years.
Kerby Anderson quotes a Manhattan architect, who
designs automated environments, as saying, “Technology is increasing the
heartbeat. We are inundated with information. The mind can’t handle it all. The
pace is so fast now, I sometimes feel like a gunfighter dodging
bullets.”
And we are not just physically tired. The Germans have a good
word for this other kind of weariness:
weltschmerz, which means “world
weariness.” We are wearied by many things in our lives. In our work lives,
people speak of being tired of the rat race, the daily grind, or climbing the
corporate ladder. In our political lives, people are tired of broken promises,
empty rhetoric, and partisan bickering. In our personal lives, we are tired of
being alone, tired of the bar scene, tired of the routine. We are tired of
feeling angry all the time, or feeling afraid all the time, or feeling worthless
all the time.
In so many ways we are a tired and weary people.
In
our gospel lesson, Jesus addresses the weariness and busyness of his apostles.
We are told that the apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they
were doing and all that they were teaching, and, apparently, they were very
busy. They were so busy, we are told, that they didn’t even have time to eat. So
many people were coming and going, that they didn’t even have a chance to grab
something on the go. So Jesus’ words to them must have felt like cool,
refreshing water to people who are slaked with thirst. He said to them, “Come
away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”
How
refreshing this response must have been to his weary disciples. Notice Jesus
didn’t respond to the apostles’ reports about what they were doing by going over
a new strategic plan. Notice he didn’t respond to their reports of what they
were teaching by going over a new curriculum. No. He said to his weary apostles,
“Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”
Don’t
we all long to hear these words spoken to us by our Lord? Don’t we all desire to
hear the invitation to come to a place all by ourselves and simply rest a while
in the presence of our gracious God?
No doubt our faith requires us to
do certain things as well as believe certain things. No doubt we are created to
find meaning and value in the work we do, especially when it is done to the
greater glory of God and the service and up-building of our neighbors. But our
weariness in what we do and our pervasive busyness are signs that something
isn’t quite right.
To put it in contemporary terms, our pervasive
business and weariness are signs of the failed illusion that we are in control
of our lives, that we are self-made men and women. To put it in theological
terms, they are signs of the illusion that we can make ourselves right with God
through our actions and beliefs. Since these are illusions, we need to keep
propping them up. We keep adding one more thing to our to-do list, rather than
take some time and reflect on why we are doing all these things.
And
rather than see weariness as a sign that something is out of whack, we take it
as a sign that we are making headway. See how busy and weary I am? Doesn’t that
mean that I am valuable? Doesn’t that somehow make me worthy of admiration?
Doesn’t that merit at least a little divine favor?
When the apostles
gathered around Jesus, they told him all that they were doing and all that they
were teaching. They were so busy, so many people were coming and going, they
didn’t even have time to eat. And Jesus said to them, “Come away to a deserted
place all by yourselves and rest a while.”
Our Lord knows what we need,
even when we do not. When we gather around him, we may want to tell him all the
things we have done and all the things we have taught others. We hold up before
him our busyness and our weariness as objects worthy of praise and reward. We
tell him that we have been so busy that we haven’t even had time to eat. And we
say to ourselves, surely all these things will prove how important and valuable
we are.
And our gracious Lord looks past all our illusions and he doesn’t
even mention them, because if he did, he would have to remind us that all that
we are and all that we do are gifts from God in the first place. Rather, he
looks into our hearts and sees what we truly desire, what we truly need. He
makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside the still waters and
restores our souls. And he says to us, “Come away to a place all by yourselves
and rest a little while with me.”
Credit to - Dr. Joseph S. Pagano
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