Rest a While
I'm stepping away from daily reflections for the next several days - not because prayer and rest don't matter, but because of what they're actually for. A reflection on Mark 6:30-32.
Mark 6:30-32
REFLECTION:
The apostles come back to Jesus after being sent out to preach and heal, and He doesn't ask them to report in more detail or push them straight back out. He tells them to come away and rest a while - even the mission needs a rhythm, and the same men sent out to work are the same men told to stop.
Prayer matters. Relationship with Christ matters. But neither means much if it never turns into anything - if it stays private, internal, never spent on the people actually in front of you. Real discipleship means finding the time to devote yourself fully to the people you love and give your gifts away without holding back.
Some seasons call for more motion than meditation - more doing than sitting still. Other seasons reverse that, and the doing has to stop long enough for the reading and the prayer to catch back up. Neither season is wrong. The only thing that has to stay constant through both is where your focus is - on Christ, not on the rhythm itself.
I'm stepping away from daily reflections for the next several days for a trip with one of my sons - time I want to give my full attention instead of splitting it. Normally, I would have worked ahead a bit so that I could keep the reflections going. Instead, I spent my time this week helping someone work through a legal matter. That took all the time I would have had to work ahead.
That work is not a departure from any of this. It's the same rhythm, just tipped further toward motion for a little while.