It’s okay to hide.

Sometimes, anyway.

We looked at some people searching for Jesus yesterday. He had spent the night healing people, whatever illness they brought to him. When day came, he left for a secluded place. He needed some rest. And then the people came looking for him, wanting him to stay and keep healing them.

This means that when he stopped and went to find a place away, there were people who hadn’t been healed yet. There were people who still had problems. There were people who didn’t have their lives together. And Jesus walked away.

We think that as God, he could have kept going. But he was also fully man, which meant that he needed to sleep, to rest, to be away. Which means that it is okay to be human. It is acceptable after a heavy day of work to go away, to head home, to leave work undone.

When you are working hard doing what God calls you to do, you have permission, by example, to not do everything, to not heal everyone, to go away.

And that is something to anticipate.

(From Luke 4:40-44)

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Here’s part of my reading list for this year: 2011 Books