Living In Tandem
I so appreciate the articulateness and insight of my colleagues on this blog site. You are willing and able to interact with almost any topic with great expertise. I’m impressed. I enjoy and benefit from your postings.
I so appreciate the articulateness and insight of my colleagues on this blog site. You are willing and able to interact with almost any topic with great expertise. I’m impressed. I enjoy and benefit from your postings.
Right now, after reading some of the posts and responses, I feel like offering a cold cup of water to each of you who has been deeply engaged with the current screaming issues of our culture. It is simultaneously exhilarating yet, exhausting and depleting.
Take a deep breath; come away for a moment of restoration. Let your soul, mind and body recharge and be refreshed.
Look at Jesus' model. After intense ministry engagement He withdrew and nurtured His soul by communing with the Father – in silence and solitude- soul nourishing, delicious moments alone basking in the Presence of Almighty God. He did it and He modeled it for those He ministered with. Thousands of years later, He offers us the same invitation. Come.
While we are coming however, we must hold in tandem another reality with this invitation. Read on. Consider Mark 6:30-33.
“And the apostles gathered together with Jesus and they reported to Him all
they had done and taught. And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a
lonely place and rest a while” (For there were many people coming and going,
and they did not even have time to eat.)And they went away in the boat to a
lonely place by themselves.”
Doesn’t this sound inviting – a whole collection of moments away with the Savior…lots of down time, resting, sleeping, basking in His presence, a quiet journey over to the other side of the lake with anticipated rest on the other side?
Is that what happened? Not exactly. In the very next verse we read
“And the people saw them going and many recognized them, and they ran there
together on foot from all the cities and got there ahead of them.And when He went
ashore, He saw a great multitude, and He felt compassion for them because they
were like a sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”
The reality of their situation mirrors ours. There is always someone waiting; always more to do than there is time to do it; always great needs calling and pulling. We’re not really “off duty” yet. We won’t be until we breathe our last breath and enter eternity with the Lord.
In the meantime, we can, as closely as possible,emulate His habit of drawing away for the badly needed break all the while realizing the reality of more waiting for us on the “other side of the lake.”
Jesus knowing our reality still invites because He knows that on “the other side of the lake” He will be there with us holding us, supporting us and giving us just what we need to enter back into the fray – His Presence.
Rest well. You will be cared for.
Gail Seidel
Gail Seidel served as Mentor Advisor for Spiritual Formation in the Department of Spiritual Formation and Leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) and as an Adjunct Professor in the D Min in Spiritual Formation in the D Min Department at Dallas Theological Seminary. She has a BA in English from the University of Texas, a Masters in Christian Education from Dallas Seminary and a D Min in Spiritual Formation from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She is a contributor to the textbook, Foundations of Spiritual Formation, Kregel Academic. She served as co-director for Christian Women in Partnership Russia with Entrust, an international church leadership-training mission. She and her husband Andy live in Fredericksburg, Texas. They have 2 married children and 6 wonderful grandchildren--Kami, Kourtney, Katie, Mallory, Grayson, and Avery.
