January 29 | Mark 5:21-34

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DAILY READING

Mark 5:21-34

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REFLECTION

Jesus, Master of Multitasking

by Pr. Dave Mann

Many of us know what it is like to be challenged with the task of multitasking. We have responsibilities that pull us in many directions at once. We may find it difficult to effectively manage our various responsibilities: in our jobs, in our families, at church, with our children, in our neighborhoods, etc. We engage with one responsibility, but before we bring it to a conclusion, our phone rings, our email In-Box gets filled up, and additional claims on our time and energy clamor for our attention. Most, maybe even all, of these challenges are not wrong or unimportant.

Jesus’ years of ministry while physically present on this earth were filled with a plethora of claims on his time and energy as well: the selection and training of his 12 disciples, the proclamation of the kingdom of God to the masses, healing of the sick, casting out evil spirits, keeping the disciples from arguing about who would be the greatest, dealing with Gentile political leaders (notably Herod and Pilate), dealing with Jewish errant expectations of the role of Messiah, etc. None of these needs were irrelevant or wrong in their own right. But how did Jesus manage to keep them all straight?

Today’s reading reveals how Jesus had to deal with multitasking. While Jesus was on his way to the home of Jairus to address the urgent need to heal his ailing daughter, the woman with the 12-year flow of blood interrupted the process. Both were important—one not more urgent than the other. Jesus chose to take the time to care for the woman.

Jesus was the master of multitasking—teaching, providing care, healing, deliverance, feeding the multitudes, spending time alone in prayer, and ultimately providing the sacrifice for sin, and rising again from the dead. The key, whether for Jesus or us, is to be clear in one’s heart and mind as to what is our central purpose in life. If an interruption leads us astray from our central mission, we should graciously sidestep it and keep moving forward with the task at hand. If the interruption also plays an important role in our God-given purpose in life, we can be assured God will provide us with the time and energy to accomplish the current and the new task with focus and purpose.

What is your central mission in life? Which of the many claims on your schedule contribute to directing your energy to serve in that mission?

PRAYER

Lord of time and energy, I, first, ask you to guide me by your Holy Spirit to identify my purpose in life. Then, please help me engage with the multiple claims on my schedule to serve you in that purpose. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

January 28 | Mark 5:1-20

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DAILY READING

Mark 5:1-20

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REFLECTION

by Elaine Pierce

In Mark 5 we read a disturbing story about a demon-possessed man who Jesus miraculously cures. This man is truly an outcast: he lives in tombs, apart from "civilized" people. I doubt he was invited to many dinner parties. In fact, the townspeople tried to chain him in the tombs, but he was so strong he broke the chains. My guess is that for the most part, he was out of sight, out of mind. He was someone you would cross the street to avoid encountering.

But how does Jesus respond when this man comes to him in desperate need of healing?

"Jesus had said to him, Come out of this man, you evil spirit!" (Mark 5:8)

Jesus is stronger than a legion of demons, isn't he? They quake in the face of his power and his faith, but demons despise inaction. Jesus allows them to enter the pigs, who rush into the lake and drown. This must have been a spectacle that shocked and surprised those tending the pigs. They "ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what happened." (v. 14) Then they bowed down and worshipped Jesus, right? Oh, no, they did the opposite:

"Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region." (v. 17)

Jesus upset the social order of the town. The demon-possessed man, despised and forgotten, had been restored to health and wholeness. What were they to do about this? How could they accept this awful person back into society? They would have preferred that he stay in the tombs. They were forced to deal with what Jesus had done - who was this man who was more powerful than a legion of demons?

So often Jesus is drawn to the poor, the misfit, the lowly. And we turn our backs on them. We would rather focus on people more like us, people who know how to behave in society, how to go along to get along. Or maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but I am convicted to focus on Jesus and ask him to make me a person who loves the unlovely. Jesus, make it so. I am weak, but your burden is light. What a day it will be when we meet the Gerasene demoniac and sing God's praises together!

PRAYER

Thank you, Lord, for your word, and for how daily joy its truths afford. Yes, sweeter are your words to me, than all other good can be. Thank you for reminding me how you look at the heart, not at outward appearance. Help me each day to love those people I encounter, in your name. Amen.

January 27 | Mark 4:35-41

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DAILY READING

Mark 4:35-41

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REFLECTION

Don't You Care

by Mary Alice McGinnis

When my son was a baby, we went on a summer camping trip on the tip of the thumb in Michigan, on the shores of Lake Huron. We were enjoying a wonderful day swimming in the lake and making sandcastles on the beach. After finishing our picnic lunch, we saw something strange on the horizon.

Across the lake, the sky was turning dark, and a line of thick dark-green clouds were speeding towards us. We could see ALL the boats in the lake frantically racing toward the shore, trying desperately not to be overcome by the oncoming storm.

As we stood there on the beach and watched, lightning began flashing across the sky, the mounting wind tossed up beach balls and umbrellas in its clutches, and the dark-green storm front marched closer and closer.

We scurried back toward our campsite wondering where we were going to find a safe place to wait out the storm. Our little Apache camper was no match for the fierce winds. My husband told me to get inside the camper, sit on the floor with my infant son and wait for him to come back for us.

There I sat in the middle of the floor of our lightweight camper, getting pummeled by sheets of heavy rain and buffeted by thirty-mile-per-hour winds. I hugged my son close, and cried out to God, “Where are you? How could you leave me in a situation like this? How could you just leave my son and I here amid this storm?”

Picture such a scene from the storms of your own life. Maybe you have had a time in your life when you were extremely frightened and overwhelmed. Think about how that moment in time felt. Did you feel like God was distant or inattentive to your turmoil? Or worse yet, that maybe He just didn’t care?

Did you notice that after spending the day teaching the crowd from the disciple’s boat, Jesus said to the disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side?” He already knew how the story was going to unfold that evening. The storm did not surprise him. In fact, He was so much at peace with what was about to happen, He curled up in the front of the boat and fell asleep. Faith sometimes calls us to rest.

Despite His promise that they would “get to the other side,” the disciples gave into fear. Fear led them to doubt Jesus. As they frantically tried to save themselves by their own skills, they question Him, “Don’t You care if we drown?”

The real question wasn’t if Jesus cared. The real question was, did they TRUST HIM? If they truly knew Jesus was the promised Messiah, did they trust He had the ability and the desire to save them? Did they really think the Messiah would die in a storm in the middle of the Sea of Galilee?

When Jesus awoke and calmed the storm, they were even more afraid, wondering, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him?”

Jesus was (and still is) the God incarnate, of whom Psalm 89 says: “Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you. You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.”

After having spent a whole day listening to Jesus teach the multitude using parables, He then used this storm on the Sea of Galilee as a physical parable of sorts. Jesus is the Almighty Lord, who is Faithful One and worthy of ALL our trust, even when it seems He is sleeping.

PRAYER

Use the words from Mark 9: 24 and 2 Timothy 1:18 as your heartfelt prayer to the Lord today:

“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

"I know the One in whom I’ve placed my trust. I’m convinced that God is powerful enough to protect what He has placed in my trust until that day."