Your ministry needs a break, too.

Proper11B, St. Martin’s Episcopal, Moses Lake, July 21, 2024, by Sr. Annette Fricke, OP When a person is always on the giving side of an equation, that person needs some receiving, re-fueling, some de-stressing to re-balance oneself. Jesus’ solution is to go to the other side of the lake away from the people. We all need the chance to disconnect from the world and its needs to reconnect with God, to re-center our lives where they need to be in right relationship with God. We are no longer effective with others when we are exhausted. We need strength and the re-charging that rest and only rest can give us. Jesus takes those who are excited about where they are now in their lives and yet sometimes tired of the daily grind. He takes us somewhere quiet to reflect on our days. Being with God gives us time to place things in their proper perspective, time to hear God put our days into God’s way of understanding. God understands our day, has been present with it, and hears our doubts and questions, reinvigorates us to get up the next morning and do it all over again! Seems simple, doesn’t it? It’s beautiful when it happens that way, but realistically, most of us will at times cave and have difficulty seeing clearly and objectively and we become tired, burned out, unable to adjust for a while to where things appear to be more in balance. As followers of Jesus, we need a break. But the break we need is not an escape from responsibility. It is time to be with the Lord to be re-energized, re-focused, to be reminded of what we are called to be. This is what any prayer time is about. The problem is there are people out there in the world who need our help. They need resources and healing just like the people who walked the earth at the time of Jesus’ life on earth. We are called to the same ministry. We can almost hear the disciples saying, “Jesus! Energize us, cause the crowds are coming again, and there always seem to be more.” Jesus feels the pressure, too. Jesus gets tired, too. Jesus gets angry and frustrated, too. Who is this God, who in Jesus already understands disease that is just now coming to be realized in the twenty-first century? There is a mind-body connection that the medical community largely ignores, and many psychiatrists do not believe in God. The attitude to prescribe a pill and let people go about their “normal” lives which are anything but normal. Only certain forms of counseling/therapy and Christianity work at forging the mind, feelings, and body together into one cohesive whole. They are not separate entities as many modern-day practitioners would have you believe; they are interrelated aspects of the oneness of our persons. Jesus fought hard to dispel the belief that people become ill or fall into misfortune because somewhere they or their ancestors sinned. How can we teach others to look beyond their skewed notions of what other sources tell them whether it be the people in their social circles, the news, the newspapers, news broadcasts or the internet? Remember this: God is there for you no matter what. The prayer books, the rosaries, the pilgrimages, and the retreats are aimed at one thing: our connection with God. God knows our innermost being and will always be there to walk with us. We are never too far astray to come back to God. “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” then get back in the saddle.