Day 41 - Mark

Mark gets right to business in his Gospel.  There are no genealogies or stories of the birth of Jesus.  No stories of the boy Jesus in the temple.  When Mark picks up the story, Jesus is a man and ready to change the world in ministry.  It's fast paced and heavy hitting.  This sticks out right near the beginning of the Gospel:

"Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed."  Mark 1:35

I know you're busy.  I am, too.  You've probably got a lot going on.  Raising kids, work, all the activities you're involved in, fixing up the house, family obligations.  It's easy to get so busy to think that 'praying on the run' will do.  It's easy to think that we don't really need much alone time with God.  We're thinking about Him a lot, and praying that the traffic we're in doesn't make us late for our appointment.  That's good enough, right?

I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that if the Savior of the world needed solitary time to pray with God, perhaps we do to.  We have the MAKE time to spend with God.  We have to MAKE it a priority.  There's nothing wrong with praying on the run, but that can't be it.  Now, contrary to popular opinion, the Bible doesn't point out directions for 30-minutes every day at 5:30 a.m.  We don't see that with Jesus.  But we do see that Jesus takes time when He knows that He needs time, and that's key for us.  We have to take time when we know our soul needs it.  I don't know what that looks like for you.  Perhaps it means:

• A walk in the woods
• A long bath
• A morning on your back porch
• Holing up in your bedroom or office while the house our office is quiet

There's no right or wrong way.  How God speaks to you and how you feel solitude are up to you.  But we all need it.  Don't get too busy for God.  Jesus was saving the world, and He took time for it.