"Come away, to a deserted place, and rest" - Jesus.
One sentence, three pieces of advice, to 12 disciples - plus you and me.
Come away from that toxic air that’s all around us - the negativity the anxiety, and stress.
Come away from:
- everybody else’s expectations for us-
- the 24-hour "breaking news” cycle that leaves us over-informed and under-educated.
- and from our own propensity to expect more from ourselves than we can possible deliver - then get depressed when we don't achieve it!
Come away to a deserted place -
What’s deserted?
How about that room that ‘hope’ lives in?
Or all those empty canals of optimism-
And the hallway of faith - that things have a purpose and are working towards a positive end - certainly that place could use a few more warm bodies..
Come away to a deserted place-
Yes, the gate is narrow,
The road is less-travelled,
And way too few people are taking it - so there’s plenty of room for us...
Come away to a deserted place and rest.
- Rest in the long view of our cosmic existence - overall let’s remember the great strides being made in human equality, food and water production, and our capacity to truly care for one another.
- Rest in the world's overall track record of working things out to the good over time - we know life always takes us two steps forward and one step back.
- Rest in the reality that we’ve made it this far - think about it, we’ve overcome loads of things we thought would kill us - but none of them have.
Jesus calls us to come away, to a deserted place, and rest - not to escape life but to really live it.
