Faithful Friday Faves - Mark

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I told you I'm stuck in a time warp; I just realized that today is Friday...time to look through Mark...

Maybe it's a symptom of my current state, but two verses jumped out at me and, since they are somewhat related, I'm going to use both of them.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. - Mk 1:35

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." - Mk 6:31

A number of years ago, the big thing in youth ministry was WWJD, which stood for 'What Would Jesus Do?'

There were WWJD bracelets, mugs, notebooks, Bibles...you name it. All aimed at getting kids to stop and ask themselves 'What would Jesus do?' when faced with a decision.

But there is a subtle deception in that question, which is this:

It assumes that we can figure out, using human reasoning, what course of action Jesus would take in a similar situation and then do that.

The problem is...Jesus often defied human reasoning in his actions. He did not do what made sense. So how can we, using our reasoning abilities, figure out what Jesus would do?

See, if you study the Gospels, you'll see that Jesus didn't figure out what he was gonna do in any situation, either. He just did what he saw his Father doing.

And the way he could tell that was he cultivated such a close relationship with the Father that he knew what the Father was doing.

He went off by himself and prayed. Often. Sometimes all night.

I submit to you that we can't really do what Jesus would do in a particular situation unless we have first done what Jesus did on a regular basis: spend quality time building our relationship with the Father and the Spirit.

Which is why the second verse speaks so loudly to me today.

Notice...it's in the middle of the business that Jesus told the disciples to come away with him. Not when things settled down, not when the business was finished, but right there, while the people were still coming and going.

Anybody wanna say 'Ouch!' with me? I have a really, really hard time stopping in the middle of the busy and going away with him.

And it's been worse this summer. But I do hear that voice...Come with me by yourself to a quiet place and get some rest...