November 7, 2011

Mark 1:35-37 While it was still night, way before dawn,
he got up and went out to a secluded spot and prayed. Simon and those with him
went looking for him. They found him and said, “Everybody’s looking for you.”
(The Message Bible)

This Sunday Alaina preached on spiritual disciplines
which was smart as it was the subject of this week’s The Next Christians session. She told
stories of how hard it is to get away from distractions in everyday life. Later
I saw a post on Facebook saying how thankful the person was for the extra hour
of quiet she got from turning the clock back this weekend. Jesus, above, got
away early in the morning, “way before dawn,” to have some time of quiet
reflection, and it was a good thing he did because there were a lot of people
who wanted a piece of him that day. It can be done, this getting away and
spending alone time with God. It doesn’t say Jesus did this every day. He may
have but it doesn’t say that here. Maybe the key is to find a way to do it just
once, this getting up early and being with God in the quiet of the new day. If
you do it once you may want to do it a second time and who knows where it could
lead. But for now, don’t worry about where it will lead. Just find a way to do
it once and let God take it from there. I have a prayer book I use that offers
the following prayer for the morning: “O God, as we rejoice in the gift of this
new day so may the light of your presence set our hearts on fire with love for
you.” It works for me. What works for you?

Don