The Balanced Life

The gospel of Mark begins at a fast speed and never really slows down.  The very first chapter of this gospel has Jesus going at what seems to be breakneck speed.  Hardly has the water of baptism dried and He is off to the races.  First, there is the time of temptation in the wilderness which is followed by His first preaching foray.  After He walks along the Sea of Galilee calling fishermen to be disciples, He enters the synagogue and teaches and then one after another show up where He is to be healed of some infirmity.  It was not just a few who came, but as Mark reports it, he wrote, "And the whole city was gathered around the door."  (Mark 1:33)     

What follows allows us to see Jesus leaving the marketplace of public ministry and entering the quietness of solitude with the Father.  "In the morning, while it was still very dark, He got up and went out to a deserted place, and there He prayed."  (Mark 1:35)  In the early morning hour when other folks were sleeping, Jesus slipped away to a place that was empty of everything except the Father's presence.  While some might rightly suggest that this was a moment for Jesus of getting Himself empowered to fulfill the ministry of the upcoming day, it was also a moment of enabling us to see a model of a balanced spiritual life.   

We tend to move toward the extremes.  Some would declare that the best spiritual life is the one which is filled with working at responding to human need while others argue that it is found in the place where no one is present.  What we see in this capsuled view of a short time in Jesus' life is the importance of balance between being and doing.  Both are important.  One without the other invalidates what would otherwise be an authentic spiritual life.