Navigating the Road: Do Not Enter
This Sunday we studied Mark 1:29-39 together to glean the wisdom Jesus had for us there, as we continued to think about how we discern our purpose along the way. In this early scene in Mark’s gospel, we watch Jesus carve out time to get away to a deserted place to pray, even though the demands upon him were great. His time in prayer helped to ground him in his identity and purpose and gave him clarity about what he needed to do next. As the story continued to unfold, we watched Jesus’s faithful “no”, give him the space to say a faithful “yes” to what God had sent him to do.
Despite what our culture tells us, we cannot do it all nor be it all as we live this life. We all have limits, and learning to respect and honor those limits is important if we want to live the life God has for us. Pastor Clare invited us to cultivate the spiritual practice of saying “no” to what isn’t a good fit for us or for the landscape of our life in a particular season, so that we have the space, energy and bandwidth to say “yes” to what God has for us. Hear from her own personal experience, as well as a story from the life of Parker Palmer in the sermon linked below!
Want to dig deeper? Check out the resources below!
Scripture - Mark 1:29-39
Let Your Life Speak: Listening to the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer
Pastor Clare referenced an article in a commentary she has that talks about the relentless pace of the Gospel of Mark. Read the first two chapters of Mark and pay attention to how many times Mark uses the word “Immediately”.
How does the pace of the Gospel match the pace of your life?
Jesus’ time in prayer takes up one verse in the Gospel - Mark 1:35. How critical do you think that time was for Jesus? How does/could taking time like that impact your life?
Listen to our final song below, “Rest” by Matt Maher, that is an adaptation of Psalm 23 that Pastor Clare referenced at the end of her sermon.
