UnpluggedSample

Choosing when to “unplug” and when to push through times of fatigue is hard. Differentiating when it’s time to engage and when it’s time to withdraw can be tough.  Jesus practiced a great technique to help him identify the difference: he listened to the voice of his Father, and he let those divine whispers guide his life.

It becomes obvious that it’s what all his “withdrawing” was about. It was about carving out time to pray, to commune, and to lean in.  His times of withdrawal, of divine rest, of intentional prayer weren’t patronizing scraps of adoration or hastily thrown together requests tossed God’s way; they were intentional and intimate moments of connection, during which nothing else caught Jesus’s eye. 

There’s a famous Christian writer who once summed up this idea this way: “What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evening, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

Jesus was in love with his Father. And that one great love drove everything he did—and did not do.

What if we became less consumed with our own plans and more consumed with entering into God’s presence?  What if we became less distracted and more in-tune with what God wants for us?  Embracing a less-hurried, less-structured life could lead us to a deeper understanding of the things (and the people) God wants us to spend our time on each day!