April 10, 2018
Ridge Reading Challenge: Devotional Mark 1:35
We live in a ridiculously busy world.
Sometimes being busy makes me feel invigorated. When I have had a particularly hectic day and I feel like I killed it, I get in the car to go home and I’m like, “Yes! I rocked my job today!” I love those days because they make me feel encouraged and excited. However, every day is not that day. Some days have been just as crazy, and I get in my car in the evening, not having done any less than I had on the day I felt great, and I just feel deflated. Those days I drag myself out to the car, get in, and wish I could snap my fingers and be home in bed. Skip dinner. Skip my family. Just let me sleep.
Recently I noted that I’m having a lot more days of the latter variety and a lot fewer of the former, and that was troubling to me. I stopped and thought about how many things I have going on in my life right now, and how little time I’m spending alone or in prayer, even when I do have some free time.
As you read the first chapter of Mark, you’ll see that Jesus, too, had a very busy life. He’s preaching and healing all the time. He’s so popular at this point that people are flocking around Him. He can barely get away for a second. But, in Mark 1:35, we see that, “before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.” He found alone time to pray and recharge.
What a great reprieve this time alone must have been! Time to take a few minutes and just listen to the crickets or morning birdsong. And, of course, to pray. Jesus went to be alone with God and to be rejuvenated so He could resume the extreme busyness that His life was right then. He was human, and He must have been exhausted -- way more exhausted than I.
We need to take time for ourselves. That’s why we started this challenge in the first place, so that we could be invigorated and reminded of God’s love for us. Again and again the Bible says that Jesus went to be alone and pray. Our lives are busy and are likely to remain so. We must remember to take time to be alone with God so He can restore our minds and spirits.