Recently I heard a story about yet another burnt out church Pastor. In the face of that I want to talk about the need for deserted places.
I make no assumptions about why that particular situation occurred. Whilst I’m not the leader of a local church or large ministry, it has still served to remind me of the importance of making sure the foundations of who I am and what I do are set right and that my priorities are clear – because if that stuff isn’t solid, the propensity to get out of balance and driven by the wrong things is all too easy. I know very well how quickly I can slip into unhealthy modes of living that can look great and Christian on the outside since much of it would involve the appearances of ‘God’s work’, but are actually rotten.
It doesn’t matter who we are or what we do – we need to set our priorities well. The words of St Luke, when talking about Jesus, resonate loudly for me:
‘Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.’ -Luke 5:15-16 (NIV)
There are times when he did that (escaped the deserted places) all night or would duck out before sunrise, causing his disciples to go and find him. He was clear, he was doing what his Father required of him and to do that properly he needed to spend time with the Father.
Too often, given circumstances that seem unrelenting, much like all those people turning up to see Jesus, we prioritise that work thinking we’re doing the right thing… we’re doing ministry. Or maybe our jobs, whatever they may be, demand our time and so we give them more and more of our time and effort to the neglect of our families and time with God.
If Jesus needed to spend time in deserted places, how much more must we need it? Someone can have all the hallmarks of a supposedly great ministry and be completely neglecting real closeness to God. In the same breath there can be plenty of people who don’t fit the bill of Christian fame with big ministries; people who faithfully plug away at everyday life and intimately draw near to God regularly – I know which one I believe God delights in and it’s not the big ministries with leaders who neglect time with him to serve their burgeoning empires.
Longevity in life involves prioritising that time out with God. It’s not good enough to see it as discretionary and able to be cut if other things demand our time. Jesus could have very easily done that, but he didn’t and nor should we. Our first call is our relationship with God. If we allow the busyness to rule, we’re destined to topple. If we think we’re immune from it, no matter who we are we’ve deluded ourselves.