Then, in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a deserted place, and there he prayed. Simon and his companions went in search of him, and when they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” Mark 1:35 ( J.B. Phillips)
In his book, The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch shares with the world the challenges and blessings of being a husband, parent, and professor, all while battling pancreatic cancer. He offers the following insights that speak to me in simple, yet significant ways. If you are reading this, my prayer is that these words are life-giving to you.
“…the best caregiving advice we’ve ever heard comes from flight attendants: ‘Put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others’….there’s nothing weak or selfish about taking some fraction of your day to be alone, recharging your batteries.” pp. 200-201
I think the Professor offers us something significant here. I wonder how many times I’ve rushed off to rescue someone who was struggling to breathe in some way) without making sure I had taken an adequate supply of oxygen into myself ? The truth be known – the answer is: way too often. A friend of mine from Australia frames it this way, “A church doesn’t need a pastor who can’t waste away an hour with God on a regular basis!”
Jesus made it a regular practice to come away from the crowds and even the inner circle of disciples to make himself available to God. What makes us think that we can somehow come up with a better practice than Jesus? We all feel the weight of expectation imposed upon us. Often those expectations come from others. “Everyone is looking for you.” Sometimes those expectations come from ourselves.
As the late, Henri Nouwen noted, “ The word listen in Latin is audire. If we listen with full attention in which we are totally geared to listen, it’s called ob-audire, and that’s where the word obedience comes from. Jesus is the obedient one. That means he is total ear, totally open to the love of God. And if we are closed, …to the degree that we are closed, we are surdus. That is the Latin word for deaf. The more “deaf” we get, the more absurdus we become, and an absurd life is precisely a life in which we no longer listen and are constantly distracted by all sorts of voices and lose touch with the truth that we are the beloved. And as soon as we start to become spiritually deaf to the voice that calls us the beloved, we are going to look someplace else to make us the beloved. And that’s when we get into trouble.”
The photograph included with this writing is one I captured while riding on an Amtrak train some years ago. We were just outside Martinez, California. (think San Francisco) I was finishing another leg of my sabbatical journey; a pilgrimage which had taken me from Key West to Raleigh, then to Chicago, and on to Denver – through the snow-covered Rockies, and all the way to the west coast. From the window of my train I could see a figure in the distance. The zoom lens gave me just enough added clarity to allow him to become my teacher. I am still learning from him.
Can you hear Otis Redding singing to us?
So I’m just sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Watchin’ the tide roll away, ooh
I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay, wastin’ time
Look like nothin’s gonna change
Everything, still remains the same
I can’t do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I’ll remain the same, yes
Sittin’ here restin’ my bones
And this loneliness won’t leave me alone, listen
Two thousand miles, I roam
Just to make this dock my home
Now I’m just gon’ sit, at the dock of the bay
Watchin’ the tide roll away, ooh yeah
Sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Wastin’ time……..
My prayer for each of us is that we would follow Jesus’ practice – grow more comfortable with solitude, and by the grace of God learn regularly how to waste away an hour with God. Maybe you could waste three minutes right now to watch and listen as Otis sings (with the help of Rapunzzl)… It might just be music for your soul… https://youtu.be/cbRt7RCUDjc
Still In ONE Peace,
Jon (the Methodist)
If you would like to view past editions of How Sweet the Sound, follow this link: https://sounddistrictnc.org/category/from-the-ds/