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. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"
Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else--to the nearby villages--so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." Mark 1:35-38
So this is what I now about Jesus--he didn't need Celebrate Recovery. Jesus didn't have any problems with boundaries. When the disciples found him and exclaimed, "Everyone is looking for you!" that didn't ruffle Jesus one bit. Had someone exclaimed to me, "Everyone is looking for you!" that would have been my cue to hop to. How often do I "hop to" because the world is clamoring for my attention or because I'm responding to the tyranny of the urgent? How often do I let the urgent overshadow the best? How often do I collapse into bed at the end of a day that I have filled with obligations that I committed to out of guilt rather than calling?
So how, apart from Him being God, was Jesus able to say, "Let's go somewhere else" in the face of exclamations of "Everyone is looking for you"? I think the answer lies in Mark 1:35. "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." Wow! Jesus knew that he was to go to the nearby villages because he had spoken to the Father that morning. While everyone was looking for him, he was looking to the Father. He could easily recognize the lesser though perhaps urgent demands made on him and confidently resist them.
Let us make time in our solitary places with the Father a priority that we may pursue the best and not the urgent.
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