“Jesus said, ‘Come away with me to a deserted place and rest for a while.’ For they were coming and going with no leisure even to eat.” What a great scripture here in the middle of summer. Jesus knew we need to have a Sabbath. A time away. A time to just be. A time to renew.

I like for my prayer at times to be to listen. When I listen outside in nature, I see so much happening that I didn’t control or produce. I am reminded of God’s work that is not solely dependent on me.

Sabbath is a commandment. Remember the sabbath and keep it holy. Why is it we take seriously the commandments like do not steal and do not kill but we gloss over the command to pause, to come away with Jesus and rest for a while?

Maybe it is because a duty is far less inviting and might not elicit rest and renewal. The command: ‘Be at peace,’ isn’t calming is it? Yet, this is vital to our soul.

Here it is the middle of summer and I hope you are finding time with your family in ways you perhaps do not have when the school year is in full swing. Maybe if you are retired you do not have the same rhythm of work and play. Yet ,even in retirement summer may give you a time to be outside, go down the shore, come to the creek, cook out, watch the lightning bugs.

Jesus said, “Come away with me”. Sabbath is more than simply taking a nap. At times we may feel overwhelmed and we sleep but do not wake up refreshed. The mind isn’t always at peace even in sleep. Come away with Jesus. This is a time to give to God. A time to let God love us.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin “Above all trust in the slow work of God… Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.”

When Jesus got in the boat with the disciples and said these words, the crowd followed them. So, before they even landed the boat the crowd gathered ahead of them. This reminds me, your activities will follow you. Your demands will be there when you return. The family will still need you. If you are still working, it will be there. The laundry must be done, the grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, all if it will be there when we get back.

And this is so true with pastors. Someone called pastors, “A quivering mass of availability.”

Come away with me to a deserted place and rest for a while.

Jesus said, “come to me, … he said he is gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls.”

The prophet Jeremiah knew about rest for our souls when we are making a decision.
Thus says the LORD:
Stand at the crossroads and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way lies; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16

Robert Frost wrote a wonder filled poem which ends:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The book “The Road Less Traveled” by M.Scott Peck notes— the road of love is traveled less. First line of that book: “Life is difficult.”

I love the little book : “The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse”. At one point the horse said, “Life is difficult and you are loved.”

Simple message we need often. Come away with me and rest for a while and remember you are loved.

The needs will come back, all the demands of the world will be there when you return, but first know you are loved.

If you have ever watched the waves ebb and flow at the ocean, what a metaphor this is of our life balance. We work, we play. We act, we rest. Take seriously Jesus words today. They are timeless and we cannot function without rest and connection to God.

Come a away this week, with Jesus and rest for a while.