Who’s too busy?

Too busy to rest?  Can’t find a moment for yourself?  You know there are probably things you are doing that are “time wasters,” things that you do because you feel the need to check out from all of the crazy swirling around you.

Well, you are not alone in wanting to check out; that hits most of us at one time or another.  Here’s some good news! The Gospel of Mark 6:30-34.  (I’ll tell you about it in case you don’t have time to look it up right now!)  

In this passage, the apostles are reporting to Jesus about all they have been doing.  Can you guess how Jesus responds to them? 

The scriptures tell us Jesus says:  “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”  To these men, who had incredibly important work to do—surely there were a multitude of people who still needed to be saved, or had not yet heard the Good News—Jesus says, go on, rest awhile.

That’s Jesus for you, knowing how to read people.  He knew the work that had yet to be done, but he knew the importance of rest.  Their rest came first, because without renewal, nothing gets accomplished.

I have found this to be true personally.  The more work—and the greater importance attached to the work—the more time is required for renewal, through prayer or solitude.  I do not function nearly as well if I have a lot of noise coming at me.  And let’s be honest, this world of ours has a lot of noise.

To tune out the noise, sometimes we have to fight our own desires.  The ones that say “watch the news” or “drown things out with the radio or television”; we need to resist the self-distractions that keep us jumping from one thing to the next.

Many people today struggle with quiet.  We say we want quiet, but as soon as we have an opportunity for it, we fill the void.  It may take a little practice to get comfortable with the quiet once you commit to it, but once you do, you will find it very enjoyable; the restlessness it used to cause you will disappear.

Back to the apostles.  So they did what Jesus told them to do.  They got into a boat by themselves and went to a “deserted place.”  The bible tells us that “people were coming and going in great numbers.”  In fact, when all of the people realized the apostles and Jesus were leaving, “they hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them!”

Then Jesus went into action.  He showed pity on the crowd and began to address them.  What follows in the gospel is the event known as The Feeding of the Five Thousand, which is a remarkable miracle where Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish, an event recognizable as the miracle of the Eucharist where we also are fed even today.

We know the disciples joined Jesus, because he ordered them to find food for the crowd.  They collected what was available—five loaves and two fish—and Jesus looked to heaven, blessed the food and had it distributed to the five thousand gathered.  There was so much food that “twelve wicker baskets full of fragments [of the loaves] and what was left of the fish” remained after everyone ate to their satisfaction.

So did the apostles ever get that well-deserved rest?  How much time passed between their boat escape and feeding the crowd?  Scripture tells us that “when he [Jesus] disembarked” he saw the vast crowd!

I think we can glean something from this that might be helpful for those of us who are time-challenged or noise-challenged:  we may assume that the disciples were fed with the crowd, and also listened along with those gathered, as Jesus “began to teach them many things.”

We can see that there is true refreshment to be found in listening to the Word of God and receiving the Body of Christ, who is actually our food for the journey.

While I like the idea of quiet, the apostles’ on the mountain was anything but quiet.  No solitude there this time.  But we can be assured they were renewed in Christ.

So whether we find refreshment in absolute solitude or sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to his words, we need to figure out what works for us, because clearly neither of these is a waste of our time, but essential for our livelihood.

I would encourage you today to stop “swirling in the crazy” around you, and enjoy the peace that is being offered to you in Jesus.

Janet Cassidy

Janetcassidy.com