A lady opened her refrigerator and saw a rabbit sitting on one of the shelves.
"What are you doing in there?" she asked.
The rabbit replied: "This refrigerator is a Westinghouse, isn't it?"
To which the lady replied "Yes."
"Well," the rabbit said, "I'm westing."
I guess everybody needs a westinghouse. Everyone needs a quiet spot--a place that they can get away to recharge the batteries, to re-nourish the spirit. In the 1970s, Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier co-starred in the movie Zulu, which was shot in Kenya. They were assigned a local man to drive them around town. One night, after attending a late-night party, Michael and Sidney came out to the car and found their driver to be unconscious. No matter how hard they tried, they could not rouse him, nor could they find his pulse. They called a local doctor and reported the apparent death. After a quick examination, the irritated doctor announced that the man was only sleeping. Michael Caine protested that the man had no pulse and was impossible to wake. But the doctor explained that this is the way all people are supposed to sleep. 'Civilized' people, he said, who live in big, noisy cities and hold down draining, stressful jobs have lost the ability to sleep as deeply and peacefully as they should. (1) Maybe that doctor is right. It would be interesting to know how many of us have to take something occasionally to help us sleep.
Jesus knew it was important for people to get away from time to time. His apostles had been out preaching and teaching and healing and ministering to the public. And it was Jesus who suggested that they get away from the crowds for a while and rest. So many people were coming and going that they scarcely had time to eat. So, Mark tells us, they left by boat for a quieter spot. Notice it was Jesus who made this suggestion. Older pastors can remember when rural churches resented pastors taking vacations. This was understandable when parishioners were glued to their farms. Cows needed to be milked, eggs needed to be gathered, hogs needed to be fed daily. The family farmer could not afford to hire someone to come in and do the chores while the family flew off to Disney World. So, many rural people resented pastors taking vacations too. There was even a famous poem written that suggested that the devil didn't take a vacation and that it was dangerous for a pastor to take a vacation as well. It would appear that this poet wanted his pastor to follow the devil's example rather than Christ's. Christ believed in taking time off. Even God worked six days and rested on the seventh. Come to think of it, maybe the devil wouldn't be so ornery if he took a little time off too.
Today, very few people work on farms. We work in offices and make sales calls and teach classes, and we are involved in a host of other very stressful occupations and we've come to know the value of taking time away. Chuck Swindoll tells about a research psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health who was concerned about the stresses of modern life. He was convinced he could prove his theory from a cage full of mice. His name? Dr. John Calhoun. His theory? Overcrowded conditions take a terrible toll on humanity. Dr. Calhoun built a nine-foot square cage for his mice. He observed them closely as their population grew. He started with eight mice. The cage was designed to contain comfortably a population of 160. He allowed the mice to grow, however, to a population of 2200. They were not deprived of any of life's necessities except privacy--no time or space to be all alone. Food, water, and other resources were always clean and in abundance. A pleasant temperature was maintained. No disease was present. All mortality factors (except aging) were eliminated. The cage, except for its overcrowded condition, was ideal for the mice. The population reached its peak at 2200 after about two-and-a-half years. Since there was no way for the mice to physically escape from their closed environment, Dr. Calhoun was interested in how they would handle themselves. Interestingly, as the population reached its peak, the colony of mice began to disintegrate. Strange stuff started happening. The males who had protected their territory withdrew from leadership. The females became aggressive and forced out the young . . . even their own offspring. The young grew to be only self-indulgent. They ate, drank, slept, groomed themselves, but showed no normal aggression and, most noteworthy, failed to reproduce. After five years, every mouse had died. This occurred despite the fact that right up to the end there was plenty of food, water, and an absence of disease. (2) This is a parable of modern life. For many people, a simple task like getting to work is extremely draining. There are too many cars on the highway. Roads are too often under construction. Commuting time is getting longer and longer. We have even invented a new term for the stress we feel when travel time frustrates us: road rage. Driving a car, sitting in front of a computer screen, working all day long with clients. A person can only perform these emotionally and spiritually draining tasks for so long until it's time to say enough! Jesus says, Get away from the crowd for a while, find a quiet spot and rest.
Our lives were designed for balance. This is a concept that many people are just now discovering--balance. Workshops are being given in major corporations on how to balance one's life--work and family, income and spiritual well-being. And it's time we were paying attention to what modern life is doing to us.
Larry Burkett, in a recent magazine article, used the analogy of the Pony Express. As you know, for a few years in the Wild West, mail was dispatched across this country by a relay system known as the Pony Express. Occasionally an express rider would be attacked by Indians. Because his big mount was stronger than the Indian ponies, the rider could spur his horse to a gallop and outrun his attackers before his horse would tire. This scenario wasn't repeated too many times before the Indians changed their plan of attack. Realizing they couldn't outrun the express rider, they wisely stationed some of their number every few miles along the route. Then, just when the rider had outrun the first group of attackers, the second band would appear, causing him to spur his horse on without rest. This tactic was repeated until at last the rider's horse would collapse from exhaustion. (3)
Sometimes we are like those Pony Express horses. We get one crisis resolved and here comes another. If it is not a child in trouble at school, it's an aging parent needing our attention. If it is not an unhappy client, it is an expensive car repair. One stressful thing after another. There is no rest for the weary, we say. And that is so, UNLESS, we plan balance into our lives.
We were created for balance. God worked six days and he rested on the seventh. Notice that God created day and night. The day was for working. The night was for resting. But modern humanity is not content with that. Now our stores are not only staying open seven days a week, but some are staying open twenty-four hours a day. But we were not created to go twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Notice that God created us so that we would spend about a third of every day sleeping. We were created for balance--for working and relaxing, for business and for family, for socializing and for spending time alone with God. Any time our life gets out of balance, we pay a price. Aesop's fable said it well.
In ancient Athens a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity. Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian, "Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bow implies."
The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make. Aesop explained, "If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it."
Aesop was talking about balance. As followers of Christ it is important for us to realize that Jesus advocated balance in life too. Christianity has always been an activist faith in which the emphasis has been on taking up the cross, laying down your life, sacrificing yourself for the cause of Christ. And certainly, that is a major part of our faith. But it is possible to have an imbalanced Christianity. Jesus never meant for us to be so involved in doing good that we neglect our need for leisure, for rest, for family, for friends. As Vance Havner used to say: "If we don't come apart, we'll come apart!"
Jesus says for us to get away for a while. Our lives were created for balance. One of the great needs each of us has is to spend time one-on-one with God. One of the things that happens when we as a church have an imbalanced Christian faith is that other groups come in and meet needs we have neglected. One of the hottest movements in our society is that of spending time in meditation. This movement is coming not from the heart of the Christian community, but from without--from the New Age movement and from Eastern religions which are penetrating our nation so rapidly. The meditation these groups are advocating is not God-centered, but consciousness-centered. I say this not in a critical sense, but in a cautionary one. There is a difference in getting in touch with your inner voice and directing your consciousness outward and upward toward God. Meditation has a rich history within the Christian community. It is a history we have in large part neglected. We, like the disciples, have been so busy saving the world, that we have neglected our own need to spend time in a quiet place communing with God.
One evening years ago a speaker who was visiting the United States wanted to make a telephone call. He entered a phone booth, but found it to be different from those in his own country. It was beginning to get dark, so he had difficulty finding the number in the directory. He noticed that there was a light in the ceiling, but he didn't know how to turn it on. As he tried again to find the number in the fading twilight, a passerby noted his plight and said, "Sir, if you want to turn the light on, you have to shut the door." To the visitor's amazement and satisfaction, when he closed the door, the booth was filled with light. He soon located the number and completed the call.
A writer in the devotional, Our Daily Bread, commenting on this story, writes, "In a similar way, when we draw aside in a quiet place to pray, we must block out our busy world and open our hearts to the Father. Our darkened world of disappointments and trials will then be illuminated. We will enter into communion with God, we will sense His presence, and we will be assured of His provision for us. Our Lord often went to be alone with the Heavenly Father. Sometimes it was after a busy day of preaching and healing, as in today's Scripture reading. At other times, it was before making a major decision." (Luke 6:12). And so should we.
One of the reasons we gather for worship each week is for the refreshment of our spirits. We need to shut the world out and focus our attention on God's presence in our lives. Jesus knew the value of getting away to a quiet place. Most of you have built in some time to get away this summer. Some of you are recovering from your vacation right now. You've gone back to work to rest up. And to build your bank account back up. Leisure is getting more and more expensive, isn't it? One comedian said he saw this sign at an amusement park that said, "You must be this rich to ride this ride." Vacations are great. But vacations are not enough. Jesus is talking about building into our lives a natural rhythm of work and worship, stress and leisure, being with people and finding a place of solitude.
Balance. It is not simply a trendy word for the twenty-first century. It was the way we were created.
1. Michael Caine. WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT? (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1992), p. 354.
2. Charles R. Swindoll, THE QUEST FOR CHARACTER (Portland, Oregon: Multnomah Press, 1987) pp. 35-36.
3. "Less Spurs, More Prayer," MOODY, Sept./Oct. 1996, p. 68.