And in the morning, long before daylight, He got up and went out to a deserted place, and there He prayed. Mark 1:35 (AMP)
Before Daylight – The Today Series – Part 2
On an ordinary Sabbath in Capernaum, Jesus went to the Synagogue and began to teach. Before long, it seemed that all of heaven broke loose: Jesus delivered a man riddled with demons, and something in the atmosphere changed. The people were amazed AND terrified:
“Who is this man who can command spirits and speak with wisdom and authority…?” (Mark 1:27.)
Jesus left the synagogue and walked to Simon Peter’s house where his mother-in-law was fighting sickness. Jesus healed her too. From there, healing cascaded out and into the community. People flocked to Jesus, the whole town it seemed, and he prayed for them, healed them, spoke to them, looked into their eyes, and spent time with them.
Imagine the joy, the tears of relief and hope, the laughter that would have erupted out of the mouths of the rescued.
It was an incredible day. One for the books.
It could have even been one of those “tomorrow days…” like in Annie’s song: “the sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun.” This day WAS that tomorrow. And the sun was out in full force.
What do you do when that day ends, and another begins? When the sun dims, and rain settles in for the night, and perhaps for the next week? When the year ends, or a relationship does, too. When something finishes, and something else starts?
Jesus began the next day, the day after the incredible one, not by basking in the glory of the day before, not by reinforcing his “success’ with inflated recollections, but in solitude and prayer. Mark tells us that he got up long before daylight, in the still hours before dawn, and went out by himself to pray. We can only speculate about the prayer itself. Was he using words? Seeking advice? Relaying details? Being present with the Divine?
Jesus spent the next morning re-grouping. Focused. Attentive. Jesus sense of worth and success did not depend on the reaction of the crowds, or even on his “ministry success,” but from the presence of God. This gave him the freedom to bring his worthiness to each day instead of trying to extrapolate it from it.
What kind of day did you have yesterday? What kind of year was 2016? Is your sun setting on great success, deep failure or the mundane in-between? A grand mix of it all?
No matter what’s been, or what your hopes and fears are for tomorrow, grace is here now, filling this day to the brim, beckoning you to use it to build your life with. Jesus had a crazy good day on that Sabbath in Capernaum. But the next day he got up and prayed. He prepared his heart and held onto grace for whatever would happen next.
I’ll take a stab and say he probably did the same off the back of bad days, too.
You see, that’s what being held by grace feels like. It doesn’t depend on whether you’ve had a rather productive and successful day, year, season, whatever; or the exact opposite. It enables you to look right now in the face and hold the moment for what it is. A gift.
What to do with today? Live it. In the good, the bad, the in between. You are where you are, and where you are right now is as good a place as any to start. And who knows what will flow out of you showing up to your life in its everyday ordinariness?
Written by Lizzy Milani
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