Time Out
By Grant Gaines
On a cold morning several years ago, a man sat in the busy Washington DC Metro and played his violin for 45 minutes. During his time, it was calculated that roughly 1,100 people had walked by him in the train station. At the end of his brief “concert” in which he played six Bach pieces, the man collected a grand total of $32.
Little did these busy commuters know, the man who was playing the violin was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. In fact, just several days earlier Joshua was playing in a sold out theater in Boston where the tickets averaged $100 per person. But because of their hustle and bustle the people missed out on the brilliance that was before them.
Do you ever feel like this? Like the busyness of your life causes you to miss the purpose of your life? You have to make dinner, pick up the kids, or prepare for tomorrow’s business meeting. You have so much to do and so little time to do it. But God knew that our lives would be demanding, so in order to keep us focused on the big picture (God’s plan) rather than being consumed with the small picture (our plan), God taught us the importance of taking a break.
We see one of these “God-ordained break times” in the Ten Commandments when God instructed the Israelites to take a Sabbath day of rest. God told the Israelites that they had, “…six days each week for [their] ordinary work, but the seventh day [was] a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD [their] God…” (Exodus 20:9-10, NLT).
God wasn’t so concerned with the Israelites needing a break from their work because of their physical weariness. Instead, God knew that if the Israelites didn’t take a “time out” from their busy work schedules every week, they would lose sight of why they were there – to be a, “…a kingdom of priests and holy a nation…” (Exodus 19:6, NIV).
Similar to the command given to the Old Testament Israelites, God has given modern day believers our own “Sabbath day of rest” commandment. In Psalms 46:10 (NIV) God commands us, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Once again, God is not under the assumption that you need a physical rest from your labor, but He knows that if you don’t take an occasional break from your busy schedule, you will be too focused on your plans to be useful for His purpose.
We are not here to make money, make dinners, or make grades; we are here to be a, “…chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we might] declare the praises of [God] who called [us] out of darkness into His wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9, NIV).If that sound familiar to you, it’s because God’s purpose for us closely mirrors His purpose for the Israelites that we looked at in Exodus 19:6.
But just like the busy Washington DC commuters, wouldn’t you agree that the busyness of life is a great distractor of its purpose? That is why it is so important for us to take a momentary break every so often to refocus our attention on God and His plan.
This principle is displayed perfectly in the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As you could imagine, Jesus was a busy man. After all, He only had roughly three years (from age 30 (Luke 3:23) – age 33) to lay the foundation of His ministry which is still progressing today through the spreading of the Gospel. But Jesus wasn’t just busy, He was also very popular! Think about how excited you would be to see someone who fed the multitudes (for free!), healed the sick, and raised the dead? In Luke 5:15 (NIV) we read that it wasn’t unusual for giant, “…crowds of people [to come] to hear [Jesus] and to be healed of their sicknesses” (Luke 5:15, NIV).
And yet, despite His tall task of saving the entire world from their sins, Jesus dealt with the same 24 hour daily time constraint that you and I deal with today. So what was His secret? How did Jesus find the strength to carry on? Well, in the very next verse in Luke, we read that Jesus, “…often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16, NIV).
Jesus put Psalms 46:10 into practice by taking the time to get away from all the distractions of the world to focus on God. And if Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, needed to get away from all the commotion of life, how much more do we, as sinful human beings, need to take an occasional break to focus on God? Never underestimate the power of taking 5-10 minutes to spend time in the Word and prayer. Even a “small dose” of the Bread of Life can change your attitude and outlook.
Don’t be like the clueless commuters who missed out on musical brilliance because they were so consumed with their daily schedule. Instead, take the time to remember why you are here and Who you are here for.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions?
©Grant Gaines 2013
