Creating Space

Read Mt 12.15, Mk 3.7-12

And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd Him;
(Mark 3:9)

The number of people trying to hear Jesus was growing so large it was hard to control. In order to keep from being crushed He creates space between Him and the crowd.

Jesus demonstrates His humanity in ministry once again. He could have done something crazy with His deity like set up a force field or hover over the crowd but instead He leaves us an example we can follow. Jesus confined Himself to time, space, and energy in order to provide a model of ministry that we could follow. In this instance it was space. He knew the crowds could get out of hand and practically smother Him. So Jesus uses water to put a boundary between Him and the people. He sat in the boat and taught the people from an affective distance.

Anyone who practices the art of disciplemaking would do well to learn from Jesus’ example of creating space. Whether it’s one person or a hundred, everyone will need space. For example; we have men living in our home for ministry training. We intentionally bought a home where the bedrooms are on one side of the house and the master bedroom is on the other. Or the times when you can tell the young disciple is “full” and needs a little time and space to digest what they have learned from you. Or you could be developing a few apostolic leaders and you need some time alone with them. An easy way to do that is by taking them a road trip. You put space between them and the flock so you can concentrate on your leaders. When we do not create space we start to experience fatigue or even burn-out if we allow people to smother us. How much space we need is dependent on our circumstances and personalities but we all need it. Think about your ministry. Is there a place to create space? FJ68

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