Devotion - Tuesday, February 5

My response, to the situation in Mark 8:1-10, would have been one of panic.  Jesus sees the crowd, over 4,000 of them, and realizes "they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat."  What is to be done - in such a situation?  Jesus has them sit down.  He tells them to take their rest.

I have this reoccurring dream.  My last encounter with this dream was Friday night.  In this dream I am in my car and the brakes don't work.  Panic courses through me as I have one narrow miss after another.  The dream is so vivid that it flashes through my mind in the next instance where I must stop the car in a hurry.  In the Friday night dream it was the car currently driven by my son which had the bad breaks.  Several times in the past days I have been close to "reminding him" that the breaks in the pick-up need attention.

Jesus tells the crowd to sit and take their rest;  Jesus realizes that rushing around in a panic will do nothing to make the situation better.  In contrast to the Bible story, my breaks do nothing to slow me down; it is impossible for me to stop.

This is not a licence to leave your homework undone.  Nor is it an excuse for failing to be attentive to the promises made.  But it may be a reminder that peace 

and tranquility of heaven begins now and is brought to perfection as time goes by.  It is an invitation to give not only our hearts to Jesus, but our anxiety as well.  And to be reminded that the really important things are accomplished by forces other than our own mortal efforts.