The Gospel Reading from Mark is a clear picture of the Christian life. In it, Jesus calls his disciples apart so that he and they can get away from the crowds who have been coming to him. They need a break, a time apart to be alone with Jesus and to refocus themselves on the work that lies before them. After a while, sooner than planned, the needs of the crowds again press in on them and they, and Jesus, are back to work.
In our lives as disciples of Jesus, we find that we need to follow this same pattern if we are to keep from coming apart at the seams. We are in need of that time apart to be alone with Jesus. We need to leave the call to service behind and to come and sit at the feet of the Master so that we can be refreshed. We need to place our lives in Jesus' presence so that we can be healed, encouraged, and strengthened. We need to be reminded of what our mission is and for whom we are working.
Although in our ministry of caring and sharing we are trying to reach out to those around us, we are doing it not only because of their needs but because Jesus calls us to join him in his work. With all of the demands on us and the never-ending line of needs before us, we can easily lose sight of the fact that we do what we can because of our love of God and our desire to serve with Jesus. Coming apart with Jesus helps us to see once again the love in his eyes and to join once again with his mission.
We need to come apart so that our needs can be met. We cannot continue to give and give without having some time to be refilled. Even Jesus was not able to go about his work of ministry without taking time to be alone in prayer with God. We are certainly not able to function without that re-centering in God. We need to find ourselves held in the everlasting arms that support us and hold us up when we are ready to fall. We need to be filled and refilled with the Spirit that filled Jesus. We cannot do the work that is before us on our own.
Many of us find it hard to take the time to be apart with God. The demands on our time are great. If it is not work, it is our family's needs or meetings at church or something equally as pressing. Yet, we know that we find the time to do most of the things that we truly believe to be important. Not many of us have had to explain to our boss that we just couldn't manage to get in to work because we just had too much to do that week. Most bosses would arrange for us to have a whole lot more time available for our other pressing needs!
Oftentimes we find ourselves not taking the time for prayer and meditation because we are just too busy. It is probably more that we know we should do it but it really doesn't seem to be that important. We don't take the time for prayer because when we do we don't notice enough results. The problem is that prayer can be like exercise. If we go to the gym once, we don't see much in the way of results. We may be more tired or a little sore but we don't feel better and we still weigh as much. We don't gain the benefit of exercise in one visit and we don't usually notice the change at the time we are working out. It is in the steady discipline of doing our exercises that we receive the benefits from it.
In prayer, also, we don't suddenly become super Christians because we spent fifteen minutes or even one hour in prayer. It is in the faithful discipline of placing ourselves in the presence and power of God that we begin to grow and develop as Jesus' disciples. We don't get up from prayer and suddenly feel like we can defeat all the powers of evil that are before us. It is a slow and gradual process by which we begin to resemble more and more the one in whose likeness and image we were created.
Once we develop the habit and begin to understand over time that we are changing and that this time is truly making a difference in our lives, we have to deal with another temptation. We may want to devote all of the time we have available to quiet reflection and prayer. Becoming a hermit may begin to sound like a very good idea. But while the Christian life is never complete without this time apart to sit at the feet of Jesus, it is also never complete until we get up from his feet and follow him out into mission. The work of prayer is to prepare us for the prayer of work. We still seek to be in the presence of Jesus but now it is in kneeling at the feet of those in need as we take care of them and share with them the good news of the gospel.
From the time of prayer we move to the time of active ministry. Jesus and the disciples found that the time of prayer ended all too soon and we will find it so, as well. The needs of the world are many and pressing. The call of our Lord is to be about the work of God. There are many who suffer and many who have lost their way in life. We have much work to do and if we have been faithful to our prayer time we will be well equipped to be about it.
This cycle of prayer and reflection moving to action and ministry is never-ending. We can never be so filled with the power of the Spirit that we don't need to retreat and be refreshed in the presence of Jesus. We can never be so sure of what our ministry needs to be that we don't need to sit at the feet of our Master and be taught. Until the world has completely come under the reign of God we can never stop going out to do the work of God. Until every rock cries out the glory of God and every person is gathered under the wings of the eternal one, we have work to do. It is not a case of being a person of prayer or being a person of action. We may have our leanings more to one than the other but we are all called to be part of the cycle of prayer and ministry. We are all called to follow Jesus and be apart with him and then go to meet the needs of the world.