Jesus was perhaps one of the most relaxed people who ever walked the face of the earth. I can’t think of a single recorded instance that portrays Jesus as being in a hurry, discombobulated, or just generally harried. Ten lepers needing a healing? No problem. He handled that right away. A girl dying any moment? No sweat. He still had time to focus on a single woman at his feet who needed healing. Too many people pressing in demanding his attention? No worries. Jesus still found the time and energy to get away and rest. Nothing seemed to faze him. He seemed to take it all into stride and be relaxed. I am constantly amazed at Jesus’ state of being, probably because it is so different from my own.

Relaxed would probably be the last word people would use to describe me. Some days I think I wake up out of sorts, never having a chance to think about being relaxed. The kids start the day bickering. The grounds spilled over into the coffee, and I am trying to find something for lunch because we just ran out of bread. That’s just the first little bit of the day. The rest just goes downhill with meetings running long, emails going unanswered, plans being changed, and dinner. . .what are we going to have for dinner?!?!? By the end of the day I am a frazzled mess and I wonder, how did Jesus do it? I get tied in knots by stuff that is nothing compared to what he faced. How was he so calm?

I suppose the easy Sunday School answer is that he was God and thus he could transcend the things that tie us up in knots. I really don’t think that’s the answer for it overlooks Jesus’ humanity. Jesus experienced life just as we do. In something of a divine mystery, his divinity didn’t trump his humanity. So what was Jesus’ secret? What did he know that we are missing? I think we catch a glimpse in Jesus’ prayer in John 17. In this prayer Jesus says a great deal about how he lived his life. The big takeaway is that Jesus lived his life totally connected to the Father. I am not talking about a mental assent that God exists or even set aside times of devotion to start the day. I am talking about complete and total reliance on the Father for everything. Jesus lived life being one with the Father. Jesus understood that everything he had, all he needed, life itself came from and flowed through an ongoing and intimate relationship with the Father. Jesus didn’t need to worry, get stressed, or bent out of shape because he was intimately connected to the Father. Relationships that blew up didn’t faze him, because he had no need to manipulate people’s response. That belonged to the Father. A town rejecting him was minor. The results belonged to the Father. The strength and power to minister and heal? It came from the Father. The plans for the next day? The Father. Get the point? Jesus was in constant intimate connection with the Father, completely depending on Him for everything, thus he had no reason to be anything but relaxed.

Now, we might say, that was Jesus. He had a special relationship with the Heavenly Father. Me? I am on my own. I wonder. You see, Jesus prayed and asked the Father that we might know the same relationship he knew with the Father. Or to put it another way, Jesus offers us the same ongoing intimate relationship that he had with the Father so that we too might find all we need. Every moment we have access to the Father through the person of Jesus. If we will seek to live our lives connected to Him we will find that we have all we need to live in a completely different way. We will find we have what we need so that we might relax.

So how do we start? I wish I could say we could flip a switch and just start relying on the Father as Jesus did. The honest truth is that kind of switch would probably kill most of us, partly because we are not used to living this way and partly because the sudden experience of God’s glory would be too much for us in our current state. That doesn’t mean we can’t start moving that way. It begins with prayer, asking for a heart that is open to life with the Father, or at the very least for a desire to be open to life with the Father. From here, we move to moments and acts that open our life to His leading. Breaks through the day to pray are a good start as are telling God how you feel and what you are experiencing throughout the day. As you do this you will find the Father drawing you in to Himself, telling you how He wants to spend more time with you. As you respond, you will find your state of being begin to change. You will find that you relax.

A fellow traveler,

Blake
Spiritual Formation Pastor