As you read the scripture for today, notice that Jesus moves from an encounter with one man who needs healing, to being in a crowd teaching and healing, and then notice what he does in the last verse.
We are thinking together about simplicity and fasting, two choices we can make that pare down life to the essentials. It’s kind of like those shows where the decorator comes in and declutters and cleans a house up so that it makes sense again. If we move into simplicity, we can breathe and rest and take our time. No one, nothing, is hustling us to do more, say more, be more. Simplicity is a choice to move into a closer walk with the One who made us for closeness and peace in Him.
Did Jesus live with simplicity? We see some rhythms moving in his life, in the Scripture above: he moves from crowds whom he teaches and heals, to individuals that he stopped to speak with one on one, and then he draws apart “to a deserted place,” or wilderness, to pray. The rhythm he was responding to was to give of himself to crowds, to individuals and to take time also to be alone to think and pray. Was Jesus trying to move toward simplicity, helping to balance his time and energy by sometimes withdrawing? When he was with people or his disciples, Jesus was all in! But at times he went off alone, or laid down and rested and slept. Jesus knew what simplicity could do for his relationship with his Father.
How do we practice simplicity in our days? We have calendars and appointments, and very few days when there is nothing on our schedules. How do we help ourselves to keep it simple, breathe deeply, relax and connect with our Father? How do we slow down?
This week, I’ve had several appointments with people who came to sit and talk with me. I want our time together to be unhurried, peaceful, and restorative for them. If I am bothered and too conscious of other demands, I can’t simply be with them, listening and caring for them. I want our time together to be like a breath of fresh air. At times, I write or make phone calls, and I try to be available to talk to friends and colleagues, too. I have a rhythm of time alone writing, time to talk with people and have meetings, and time to be on my own with the Lord.
Today, I planned to see someone who had a fall. I made a trip to a hospital to see him, as he had been taken there by ambulance earlier in the day. When I arrived, the ER staff told me that he had been discharged. I called his cell phone to say how glad I was he had been sent home, and he let me know he was still there, stranded at the hospital, trying to think how to get back to his car. I turned around and went back and picked him up and we had a good visit together as we went back to his car. I could have just driven on home. But I was prompted to take a breath, slow down and simply be with him. That simple time together was a blessing to both of us.
The world would like us to speed up, spend more, do more, say more, and run harder and faster (maybe until we burn out). But Jesus models for us a simple, slower rhythm of life: times of togetherness and time apart with the Father. If Jesus needs that, I’m thinking we do, too.