The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Mark 6:30-31
‘Disillusioned by all our other efforts, we now see that the only hope left for the human race is to become like Christ.’ That is the statement of a famous scientist, and is being repeated among ever more educators, statesmen, and philosophers.
Yet Christ has not saved the world from its present terrifying dilemma. The reason is obvious: few people are getting enough of Christ to save either themselves or the world. Take the United States, for example. Only a third of the population belongs to a Christian church. Less than half of this third attend service regularly. Preachers speak about Christ in perhaps one service in four—thirty minutes a month! Good sermons, many of them excellent, but too infrequent in presenting Christ.
Less than ten minutes a week given to thinking about Christ by one-sixth of the people is not saving our country or our world; for selfishness, greed, and hate are getting a thousand times that much thought. What a nation thinks about, that it is.
We shall not become like Christ until we give Him more time. A teachers’ college requires students to attend classes for twenty-five hours a week for three years. Could it prepare competent teachers or a law school prepare competent lawyers if they studied only ten minutes a week? Neither can Christ, and He never pretended that He could. To His disciples He said: ‘Come with me, walk with me, talk and listen to me, work and rest with me, eat and sleep with me, twenty-four hours a day for three years.’ That was their college course—‘He chose them,’ the Bible says, ‘that they might be with Him,’ 168 hours a week!”
Frank C. Laubach (1884-1970) in Letters By A Modern Mystic (Feedbooks: 2009) letter entitled, “Christ Is The Only Hope Of The World.”
I posted this today for instructional purposes.
Having returned from a very rigorous trip to Poland and Ukraine, people might say, “Get some rest.” Actually many have. But no one said, “Spend some time with Jesus.”
Let that be our practice after a busy season and our exhortation to others.
Think about it. The disciples communicated their trip report, much like I communicate a trip report that shows faithful activities and celebrates fruits from God.
And to find restoration, Jesus wanted time with them in solitude.
That’s my priority the next two weeks. Time with Jesus before my next ministry related travel to four cities in Colombia to celebrate the launching of the new peer accountability group there.
Sure I am helping launch 6 cohorts with 485 stewards this week. And, I will speak at the International Consultation on Enterprise Risk Management. Also, I have a board meeting on Thursday.
All those things will happen. But my priority is solitude with Jesus. Give Him more time. Let that be your generosity this week and see what happens.