Get Away, To A Deserted Place

I don’t know about you, but I need a nap if I have to interact with more than 3 needy people in a day. People can be exhausting. Especially helping people through struggles and difficulty. Jesus, being a person just like us, must have been incredibly exhausted after one late night of helping choke people in Mark 1:32: “When evening came, after the sun had set, they brought to him all those who were sick and demon-possessed. The whole town was assembled at the door, and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 

I mean, this is a whole village of hurting people! And Jesus stayed up late interacting with them. That’s makes the rest of the story that much more interesting: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying. Simon and his companions searched for him, and when they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come.”

After Jesus spent a whole night serving others, he woke up early, removed his body physically from that place, and spent purposeful time alone in silence with God. If Jesus did this, what can we, his disciples, learn from it?

We learn that we need purposeful, physical rest. We do. We desperately do. You do. God knows that. One of the 10 commandments in Exodus 23 is that you physically rest for 1/7th of your life, one day a week. And you know what’s pretty cool about that commandment? It’s a planned rest. He doesn’t say, “Rest when you can. Rest when you’re finished or caught up.” No, he plans our rest for us. Rest at this time. You need it! But we’ve convinced ourselves that we don’t. Jesus knows that we need rest too. And even more than planned rest, he knows that we need impromptu rest. In Mark 6, Jesus disciples come to him and report all that they’ve been teaching and doing and Jesus immediately said to them: Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest.” Because it says they didn’t have the leisure even to eat. And Jesus wasn’t cool with that. He wanted his disciples to have space, time, stillness, just to eat.

In the church, we tend to kind of focus on the mind. Like if we could just think differently, then everything will just fall into place. But your physical condition may be effecting your mind so that things don’t fall into place, even when you’re thinking rightly. Our bodies are important. I mean, our whole faith depends on the fact that our God took on a physical body. And it’s really interesting what Jesus does with his body in this passage.

Jesus took his body away, away from the chaos and work. He didn’t just take his mind away, he specially removed his body. Even though there were more demands. More sick people who needed him. And when his new disciples were pressuring him to come back, He says that they need to leave. Most people would have gone back to that village just out of guilt or compulsion. But not Jesus. You see, what happened when Jesus got alone, in silence and solitude with God, it was then that he got a clear sense of what God wanted him to do next. He was confident in the exact things that God had called him to do. In the silence, Jesus met with God.

We run away from silence and solitude. From the moment we wake up we roll over and fire up our iphones to the moment we fall asleep, and we’ve got that thing up above our faces until we get so drowsy that it smacks us in the face. We hate silence. People have told me that then even the 40 seconds of silence during our worship service. Because silence forces us to think about uncomfortable truths: who we are, what we’ve become, the struggles going on in our lives. We don’t have to think about those things if we just keep ourselves stimulated–constantly working, constantly on our phones or watching a new TV show. It’s like a cocktail of drugs we mix ourselves with so that we can avoid silence, avoid having to think about what’s really going on.

But Psalm 62 says “For God alone my soul waits in silence.” Psalm 37 says, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” Isaiah 30 says “In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Psalm 46: “Be still and KNOW that I am God.” It’s not just that we’re scared of meeting ourselves in the silence. We’re all terrified of meeting God in the silence. Are you drowning yourself in work and stimulus and noise every day, avoiding yourself and avoiding God? Jesus is calling you into rest; into a purposefu,l physical rest where you can know yourself, know God, and know what God wants you to do.

I’m talking about actually planning time where you have the silence and stillness to do nothing but pray, and even in the prayer, planning time just to be silent. Jesus didn’t speak constantly for hours. Speaking is definitely a part of prayer but so is listening. I’m talking about a time without your phone, without your clique of friends, maybe even without familiar surroundings. Take your body away. Just you. And your thoughts, and your prayers. You need that.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, this is the exact opposite of what I need. I have too much to do to schedule time for silence or stillness. It’ll make me more stressed because I’m not being productive. Guys, thinking we’re too busy for silence and stillness is just a clever trick we’ve developed to stop us from doing it. God commanded it, Jesus modeled and needed it, the whole Bible is full of it, what if you actually need it?

Maybe you’re thinking: “This will never work for me.” Well how’s working yourself to the bone working for you? How’s drowning your emotions in stimulus, TV, instagram working for you? Is the approach of having constant stimulus and noise bringing you real joy?

Why not plan silence and stillness with God? Jesus did it, and he could confidently move forward in his life, certain that he knew the decisions God wanted him to make.

What decisions are you facing? Be silent with God. Pray. Listen. Know that He really is God.