Rest

"Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while."
Mark 6:31

What a wonderful message! The disciples had just gotten through with their first mission. Jesus doesn't send them out again, but says, "Hey guys, let's go rest." Jesus always knew when it was time to pause and wait.

Now who knows how much resting they actually got done because not soon after they arrived at their desolate place, a crowd showed up. The crowd that would later require a miracle in order to be fed. 5,000 men and their plus ones. When you hear the disciples begging Jesus to sent them away it makes a lot more sense when you realize they were probably tired and hungry themselves. It's not that they didn't believe Jesus could perform a miracle, they just were to tired to continue serving those people.

We all get to that point. We pour and pour and pour, but eventually we just want to pack up and go home. We all get tired. That's why rest is soooo important. That's why Jesus got up early every day to spend time with His Father. That is rest. Reading, praying, sitting, listening.

This running around business just leaves us empty. No wonder we stop pouring, we have nothing left. We haven't taken the time to be filled.

I don't really know where this thought was going, but there it is...