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Come Away

July 1, 2014 | by: Tom Kruggel | 0 comments

Releasing our pastor, if even for just a season isn’t easy. Rhythms are broken, confidence shaken and comfort rattled. We grimace, and with the same agree. Two decades of undying sacrifice for all and it’s more than right. It’s necessary. It’s good, because… repose is central to our condition, and sometimes it needs to be imposed upon us. We all resonate with this, deep down. You don’t have to be a pastor to identify.

tom-kruggelOur world is one with a fast pace. Bursting calendars, information overflow, instant links and global connectivity push to Mach velocity lives. “Smart” devices relieve? Au contraire… they addict us to speed. App badge icons, vibrating sensations and mnemonic sounds create junkie highs… high-stress. The ease to relax makes it impossible to relax. We’re exhausted by our own intelligent leisure.

But there is a leisure that defies our own. “Come away…”, imposes Jesus. Everyone’s worked hard, you disciples of Christ. Some with triumph to share with Him, like a child giddy to tell their daddy all they did that day. Others with reticence, silently hoping their daddy won’t ask them anything they did that day.

Either way, time spent is energy spent. Replenishment is in order, and it’s of a kind we ourselves could not devise. It’s divine…, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while” [Mark 6:31] - an aide-memoire not to be ignored.

The imperative to “come away” seems almost contradictory. To “go away” is quite logical, but to “come away” is quite another. The one implies aloneness, and the other togetherness. The Disciples, any disciple, they “come away” with Jesus, not go away without Him. He invited Himself into our boats, and we sail to other sides with Him at our side. Welcome His presence. To do elsewise is rest disguised.

And though not by ourselves, it’s “by yourselves” we come. Others are not welcome, not this time. The networks, the texts, the socials, the others all need to go… away. This time it’s just you. We’re tempted to be with both. Multi-tasked rest with one thought toward Him and another toward others seems so efficient. But we only deplete all the more. Our nature was meant for the moment, not for the moments coincident. Put them aside, at least for now and “by yourselves”, “come away”.

Then to where do we come? “… to a secluded place”. Frightening it may sound, and in the wrong place it is hell. This seclusion, though, is anything but. It’s of a kind that shines light in the darkest of dark. It opens doors in the most confining of spaces. It supplies energy where there seems to be no source. This is a place where distractions are removed and noise is baffled. And to find it you must “come away”. Effort will be expended for discovery. A place as this doesn’t just appear. But when found it’s the sweetest of solace, the respite of repair. Come to it. Serenely “come away”, with Jesus, “by yourselves” to that “secluded place”.

Now what to do? We must do, do, do it seems. But the decree is “rest”. O’ rest you weary one. To be with Him, lean into Him, listen to Him, sense Him… yes, what rest. More than just a peaceful night, this rest is the kind that can never get enough. It builds upon itself. Beckoning, it calls for more and more. There’s no guilt in not “doing”, no shame. It’s what the Master prescribes, at least for “a while”. Arriving in your “secluded place”, go ahead… “rest” with Him.

Surely as certain as dusk heavies our eyes to droop, so as certain is Jesus’ call to us for rest. May not only our pastor find it, but we as well.

Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” ~ Jesus

Thomas Kruggel is one of our Pastors here at Grace Bible Church

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