October 2004

Too Busy to Read This?

            Last week I visited one of the adult Sunday School classes where we were talking about Mary Magdalene.  Michael Radmacher was leading the class and asked why Mary went to the tomb and what she experienced there.  It sent my mind buzzing.  We talked about how John and Peter went running to the tomb, saw nothing and left.  (Just like a man!)  Then Mary came, saw nothing and sat down to embrace the emotion, lived in the moment and expressed her grief.  She had followed him throughout his ministry.  She followed him to the cross.  And now she had followed him to the tomb, and there she would wait.  The men came, looked and left, but she waited. 

            As she waited, she heard a voice saying, “Woman, why are you crying?  Who is it you are looking for?”  She thought it was the gardener and said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”  Then it was that the risen Jesus said to her, “Mary.”  She turned toward him, cried out and ran to hold him (John 20:15-16). 

            Why did Jesus not appear to the men who came to the tomb?  Perhaps he would have if they had waited.  But men are task oriented.  They came to see the tomb and accomplished their mission.  Then they left.  Why wait when the tomb is empty and the world looks hopeless?  But why not wait? 

            Waiting is hard for us in this culture.  We are so busy we rarely experience life.  We never experience God because we have not taken the time to wait.  We don’t have time to read the Bible and pray because we have a ton of pressing issues facing us and appointments that fill our day.  If we do have time off from work, we cram the empty places with recreational activities.  But we seldom take the time to wait.

            I wonder what we have missed by not waiting?  Could God be wanting to intersect our lives, but we are never still enough to have it happen?               I have a suggestion.  When you are planning your schedule and filling in your calendar, block out some time for waiting.  Savor the moment.  Allow yourself time to feel.  Clear your mind.  Ask God what is on his mind and what he wants.  Let him fill your mind with his thoughts.  Breathe out the tension and breathe in his peace.  Breathe out guilt and breathe in his forgiveness.  Breathe out the rage and breathe in the calm after you have let it go. 

            It is amazing what can happen at an empty tomb.  A place of emptiness and despair can become a place of renewed hope and exhilarating vision.  There’s only one problem — you have to wait. 

Endeavoring to let go,

Rod