A little over halfway through the opening chapter of Mark . . .

A little over halfway through the opening chapter of Mark, Jesus goes AWOL.  Before the crack of dawn, he slips off to a deserted place, away from the pressing crowds, in order to pray.  It is Peter and some of the other disciples who finally track him down.  “What are you doing way out here?” they ask him.  “Everyone is looking for you.”

So, just for a moment, imagine yourself walking into the office first thing in the morning, and before you can even put your briefcase down, you are bombarded with, “Where have you been?  Everyone is looking for you?”  If you’re at all like me, you immediately launch into overdrive.  You get the list of people and figure out who needs to be contacted first, who second, and so forth.

So what does Jesus do when greeted with the same situation?  He tells the disciples that it’s time to move on.  “Let us go to the neighboring towns,” he says, “so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”

For as many times as I’ve read this passage, it still seems strange that Jesus would want to clear out of town before his work there was completed.  After all, weren’t there still people needing to be healed?  Still people needing to be cured?  Still people feeling alone and afraid?

But the part of this story that really jumps out at me is the fact that Jesus deliberately carves out time from an already jam-packed schedule to pray.  Couldn’t he have skipped the predawn prayer session and started his visitation first thing, in order to accommodate more people?

If nothing else, this passage reminds me of two things.  First, even though the salvation of humankind was of vital importance, it was not so important that Jesus didn’t have time to take care of himself, and to tend to his spiritual connection with God.  Second, if Jesus can find time to be replenished, refueled, and renewed by God, shouldn’t each of us be doing the same?

Let’s face it; we all have important work to perform, but none of us is Savior of the world.  And if even the Savior of the world needed some quiet time, alone with God, how much more so do we?  If you are having trouble managing your life right now, maybe it’s because you weren’t meant to—at least not all by yourself.  We do what we can, where we are, with what we have.  And if we have to move on to the next thing before all of the loose ends have been neatly tied up, we can take comfort in knowing that even Jesus moved on to neighboring towns.

Sometimes the most important thing we can do is find a quiet place, away from the ever-pressing “to do” list, and spend a few moments being replenished and renewed by God!