Daily Lesson for January 31, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 30 and 31:

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

My college professor, fraternity chapter advisor, and now dear friend Dr. Bill Dean used to say, “Busy people get things done.”

The disciples have been busy getting things done. They have worked sunrise to sunset, town to town — so much so they didn’t even have time to eat. 

They were tired and worn out and probably still had a thousand things to do and needs to meet.  They would have just kept pressing on. 

And then they would have collapsed. Or self-destructed. Or just one day walked away — too fatigued by compassion. 

So Jesus said, “Come away . . . and rest for awhile.”

The world’s demands are too great. No one can meet them all.  No one can visit all the sick, feed all the hungry, call upon all the dispirited. Protest all the injustice. It’s simply too much. Not even busy, busy people can get everything done. 

We also have to rest.  To reflect. To recharge. To read, and think, and pray, and feed ourselves. We have to sleep. 

And in doing so we exercise our faith which believes that even while we rest God is still working, and even while we sleep the kingdom is still coming. 

Busy people get things done. But nobody has to be busier than God, who rested on the Seventh Day so that we could know we can rest too.