I lost the feeling in my fingers as I gripped the steering wheel tighter, white-knuckling my way through our neighborhood. It was almost 5:00 p.m., which meant my husband would soon gather our children and I would attempt to gather my thoughts. Usually, while our days aren’t perfect, they tend to run pretty smoothly. But today wasn’t one of those days.
So when the tires hit the driveway, I began plotting my escape. With our minivan screeching to a stop, I opened doors, unbuckled car seats, and sent my toddling tornados inside for a snack with their dad.
In those few, brief moments of silence with nothing but the gentle hum of the minivan’s air conditioner, I began to center myself. Maybe you’ve been there, too? The sinking feeling like you can’t possibly meet all the needs in front of you. Maybe you or someone you love deeply is going through a health crisis and you have no idea how to help them. Maybe you serve in your ministry or church and there are more things to do than hours in the day. But I know you know the pain of feeling like you’re drowning in the needs of everyone else.
And in the middle of all of these demands, deadlines, responsibilities, and people to serve, you are desperate. Desperate to hear from God. Desperate for His peace. Desperate to be in His presence.
And yet, each time you feel like you’re getting close to that peace that Jesus promised us, you feel like you get pulled under again with another crisis, another deadline, another person who needs something.
The good news for us is, we don’t have to stay desperate and depleted. We have the answer right in front of us. Because while we may feel like we are carrying the weight of the world, you and I know someone who actually did: Jesus.
Let’s take a look at Mark 1, starting in verse 21. This is where we see an outline of the day in the life of Jesus at the beginning of his Earthly ministry.
On the Sabbath, a day of rest, Jesus began to teach in the synagogue. And while he was teaching, he drove out a demon. News of his teaching and healing began to quickly spread. In Scripture, it says: “As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand, and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.”
According to these verses, Jesus has spent his day teaching and healing, pouring out and serving. And then, in the next few verses, it says: “That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons…”
Imagine the stone walls of a tiny, humble home in the Ancient Middle East. Imagine the noise of an entire city waiting outside your door, desperate for you, pleading for you, and begging for something only you can give them. Yet, Jesus didn’t hide in his minivan in the garage. He wasn’t overwhelmed by the endless needs of others, He stepped into them. He stepped into the chaos and into the desperation.
When I look at Jesus as the perfect model for a faithful life, it’s not his servant leadership that stood out to me the most in this passage, it’s what he does next in the next few verses that gives me an idea on how he sustained His life of service.
The very next line says “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
He simply left. He left the demands, the needs, the crowds, and the people and He went by himself, in silence, to be with God. This passages shows us that when we take the time to intentionally seek the Lord, we are not only comforted by His presence, but emboldened with His vision, embraced in His love, and sharpened by His wisdom. While silence and solitude with God can give us the space to breathe, it also gives us a fresh vision of what’s next.
In the very next verse, it says: “Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
When it comes to hearing from God, Jesus did the hardest part: listening. For years, I used to pray to God: “Lord, help me hear from you.” I couldn’t understand why I was diligently seeking God and yet, I felt like he was holding out on me. Until one day, I felt Him say to me: “I’m speaking, but are you listening?”
So now, my prayer switched from “Lord, help me hear from you.” to “Lord, help me listen.” This shift marks something that I think Jesus deeply understood. When we are faithful to listen, God is faithful to speak.
And in the text, we can assume God spoke to Jesus during their time together because Jesus made a shift in plans. There were still people to be healed and taught and served in Capernaum (where Jesus was in the passage we just read together), but Jesus was faithful to obey God when God called him to spread his earthly ministry to Galilee.
While intentionally carving out time and creating space to spend time in silence and solitude with the Lord is half the battle, the other half is faithfully obeying what we hear. There have been times I’ve sat in the still hours of the early morning, a Bible splayed across the armchair of my favorite chair, and eyes rimming with redness and tears, where I’ve felt God call me to something seemingly impossible: extending forgiveness, letting a door close, or trusting God in an impossible situation.
Through the tear-stained mornings or the ones marked by joy, I’ve learned that peace isn’t found in perfect circumstances. Peace is found in the ordinary faithfulness of messy and mundane days when I chose to faithfully seek Him in solitude, listen to Him in silence, and obey Him in faithfulness.
About the Author:
Kathryn Haines is a writer and speaker who longs to help Christian moms build faithful families and peaceful homes for the glory of God, by the grace of God. She has appeared on podcasts such as At Home with Sally with Sally Clarkson and Lessons from the Farm with Nicki Koziarz. Her has appeared on Proverbs 31 Ministries and regularly writes about motherhood and faith at www.KathrynHaines.com. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and two children, which is her first and most favorite ministry.
Connect with Kathryn:
@ImKathrynHaines (on IG)
