"What Matters?"

The testimony of simplicity is like a bell that calls us to awareness of the Center. It challenges us to ask, "What matters?" It reminds us that much of what worries us and stresses us is not all that important. It asks us to recognize the burdens we carry needlessly and lay them down: our anxiety about our appearance, our struggle to afford what we do not need, comparisons between our lifestyle and the lifestyles of others, squabbles born of tension and stress, worries that leave us exhausted and unable to find time for what matters in our lives.

I think Jesus understood “what matters” very well. In Mark’s gospel right from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he makes it a point to withdraw and pray.

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. Mark 1:35-39 NIV

Already Jesus’ popularity had grown and people were looking for him, trying to place constraints on his time. I mean think about Jesus schedule each day—teaching, healing, speaking, dinner engagements, traveling, driving out demons.

Over and over Jesus is pressed with the business of life just as we are in many ways. The things that tend to draw our attention way from the things that really “matter.” I know in my life when the business of life presses in on me the thing that seems to quickly fanish is my connection to God through daily prayer. And yet this is the thing that kept Jesus resolute on his mission and purpose, always aligning his will to the Fathers through prayer. Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39 NIV

Is this one of the many testimonies of simplicity that Jesus’ life teaches us? To always hear the bell that brings our awareness back the Center—to the Father and what really matters.

• What do you need to lay at the feet of the Father?

• At the end of the day, what truly matters to you?