The third week of September is coming to an end, and in just a few more days summer’s end.
We are all aware of the sun’s later arrival each morning and early departure each evening. As I sit at my computer there is rain falling, and the sky is dark and gray, like the winter months here in the Pacific Northwest.
We are, once again, slaves to calendars filled with good things, demanding things, obligatory things.
Children are requiring poster board, and more computer time to complete newly assigned projects and reports.
Date night moves away from the beach, and into the grocery stores, the Home Depot.
Exercise becomes something to schedule in as opposed to something that happens naturally when all of nature beckons us to come and play.
Awakening to a darkened room does not encourage the departure from the sheets, and their call to us to return seems to begin once the dinner dishes are put away.
There is hustle and bustle, and busy until your dizzy, and deprivation of sleep, sun and fresh air.
Overall, the fatigue of busyness has hit.
I am reminded of Mark 6:31,
“then Jesus said,
“let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.”
He said this because there were so many people coming and going
that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.”
Jesus and his disciples were so very much in demand. People were wanting them night and day. Though they were fulfilling the purposes of their lives, for the greater good of the kingdom of God, their physical needs required replenishing and refreshing. And it was Jesus, himself, who suggested the temporary retreat from their work, and all of the demands connected with it.
If Jesus would put his purpose on hold for a rest, how much more do we mere mortals need to do the same.
Maybe, this weekend, we will each be moved to go off by ourselves, to a quiet place, and rest awhile.
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