Withdrawal Moments

Prayer for calm:

Lord,
Quiet my breath. Calm my nerves. Still my busy, busy mind. Settle me down, so that I am able to think, to pray, to simply be with you. Open me up to the wonder of your presence, into which I venture now. Amen

Reading: Mark 5:30-33

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

Meditation:

Jesus is very busy in Mark’s gospel. He’s moving from one place to another, one event to another, one healing to another exorcism to another miraculous happening. It’s a rather frenetic account, really. Mark uses the word “immediately” more than the other gospel writers combined.
Yet peppered throughout this busiest of gospels are moments like the one in the reading above. “Withdrawal Moments,” we might call them. Jesus withdraws by himself to pray. Jesus withdraws to a mountaintop, taking a couple of disciples. Or, as is the case here, he withdraws with all of the disciples, so that they can rest and eat.
We all need that, don’t we? Those moments away: moments of rest, relaxation, renewal. We need to recharge our batteries.
But notice what happens in this story. Jesus and the disciples withdraw in a boat, and the crowds circle around and get to their destination first. “No rest for the weary,” the saying goes. This happens about half the time when Jesus tries to get a moment away. He’s thrust into action. In the case of this story, he tries to get a private dinner with his disciples, and instead they will wind up providing dinner for five thousand (the feeding story follows immediately upon this one).
Don’t you hate when that happens? You get yourself a nice dinner, and maybe a movie. You eat dinner, set up your pillows and blanket on the couch, maybe make a little popcorn, pop open a box of movie candy (Raisinettes seem to work well)…and the phone rings. Or the doorbell. And the Withdrawal Moment is lost, for a few minutes, or even the whole evening.
Withdrawal Moments are precious. Even more so because they are hard to find, and hard to keep boundaries around. It takes practice, and good effort, and sometimes even the ability to ignore a ringing phone to really rest and renew.
Try it this week. Really find some withdrawal time. Do a devotion. Have a nice dinner. Watch a movie. You don’t have to get Raisinettes, but I really would recommend it.

Prayer of Hope

Blessed God,
Help me to find the time and space to refresh and renew myself this week. Remind me of how much I need a Withdrawal Moment. I thank you for making me a person capable of caring for others. I pray that I will also remember to care for myself. Amen