Self-Care in Daily Rhythms

Some of us think that the only way to live well as a Christian is to move very slowly all the time, an impossible task for most of us! But we see evidence in Jesus’ life that he moved both fast and slow. The first chapter of Mark gives us an example of this. If you trace Jesus’ activities starting in verse 21, you see that in one day, he teaches in the synagogue, delivers a demon-possessed man, goes to Simon and Andrew’s home (where he heals Simon’s mother-in-law), heals many other people, and casts out many demons, the last part after sunset! It was a jam-packed day! The next morning, however, the pace changes. “Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray” (Mark 1:35, NLT). After all that action, Jesus slows down. He wakes up early to pray.

Jesus doesn’t recount to the disciples exactly what happens in that prayer time. But when they come find him, it seems that they expect to continue as they left off the night before. “Everyone is looking for you,” they say (verse 37, NLT). The healing and deliverance ministry is off to a great start, why not continue? Plenty more people need Jesus’ help, but Jesus surprises them with a new direction: “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came” (verse 38, NLT). After slowing down and praying, Jesus is able to say no to the pressure to continue the fast-paced ministry that everyone expects of him! I imagine that after he tells the disciples what’s next (preaching in the other towns), they all pack up and begin walking to the next town. They experience a slow travel day after the action-packed ministry day.

This example of moving fast and slow is important for us to imitate. There is nothing wrong with moving fast. After all, Jesus did it! However, he didn’t move unrelentingly fast. He slowed down, too.

Let’s follow Jesus’ model of fast and slow for our own life rhythms.