Leaving Your Loved Ones in the Boat

There's another lesson we can learn from Peter about breaking out of our old habits and finding time to converse with Jesus--it often means leaving behind the people we care about, at least for a little while. Peter was out fishing with friends that morning we read about in John 21. In order to get to the shore where Jesus was standing, he jumped out of the boat and left his friends behind.

I think it was Dallas Willard who said in his book, The Divine Conspiracy: DIscovering Our Hidden Life in God, that spending time alone with Christ is almost always a repudiation of someone else. For some of us, it is this that makes the setting aside of time for God in our daily lives very difficult. We feel badly about disappointing a spouse if we walk away from the TV show we usually watch together. We hate to set the alarm early and disturb his or her sleep. We feel guilty if we tell the kids we need time alone without interruption for even a few minutes. We find it hard to tell the usual lunch gang at the office that we now have something else to do during lunch hour. Sometime the hardest thing about dropping an old habit and starting a new routine is inflicting change on people we love.

I doubt there is an easy answer to this dilemma if it is one that you are facing. Perhaps just knowing that others have faced this same decision point in their own spiritual lives may help. I have read that Charles Wesley's mother used to throw her apron up over her head in the middle of her kitchen with her numerous children crowded round. Her kids knew she needed time alone with God and they did not disturb her. I have heard that while she was raising five children, Billy Graham's wife kept her Bible and study books open in a prominent place where she could pause and read threm throughout the day. I am sure during those stolen moments at least one of her children missed her and wished for her undivided attention. Your situation is not unique. But in order to get to the place where you can meet with Jesus, you need to deprive some people of your presence for awhile.

It may help you to realize that Peter's absence from his friends was temporary. The friends just followed behind in the boat and joined him on shore for breakfast a little later. No great damage was done to the friends. Actually, Peter's actions were probably helpful to the friends in the long run. They saw a great example of what it takes to get into a place where you can spend a little time with Christ.