Life Can Feel Crowded

We have good intentions, don’t we?

Connect with God, write that book, call a friend. We may even begin, yet distractions left and right keep getting in the way.

When God is  trying to reach us, trying to teach us, it seems life gets louder, and our connection becomes muffled.

The phone rings, the doorbell rings, texts are coming in, messages are dinging, dishes begin rising in the sink like the tower of babel.

Family needs, work needs, ministry needs…

Sometimes we can feel crowded, even by the good things; and important messages become diluted. Worse yet, forgotten.

We don’t need to feel guilty if we push away from the crowd.

Sometimes in order to reach out and teach others what God has bloomed in our heart, we have to push back from the crowd and sit down.

Jesus did. He got into a boat, was pushed off the shore, sat down and preached to the crowd on the beach.

At a distance.

So they wouldn’t crowd Him and push through and distract from the message He was sent to give.

And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. Luke 5:3

Jesus was hands-on for healing and breaking bread and reaching His hand to pull others up.

Yet, He needed to pull back so His message could be heard without distraction. We need to hear that message too.

He sat down to teach, as was His custom; and then He passed His message to us and He sat down again, at the right hand of the Father. And now it’s our turn to sit down and teach. But in order to reach, we may need to retreat.

Because sometimes we have to step into the boat and push off the shore of crowded,

so when we return, those in the crowd will know we have been with Him.

What will you do today to guard your time?

Photo by: Kirvan Valipa