A Time to Gather Yourself

I noticed a sign with the word gather in a storefront window display. It reminded me that we have entered a new time of year. It is time to gather. We gather leaves, apples, pumpkins, and the fruit of our harvest. We gather with loved ones to give thanks. It’s also the time to gather ourselves. As the sun sets earlier and the days shorten, it awakens us to the significance of the minutes we have and the need to make the most of them. It’s not easy to make the most of our time and energy. I often feel more scattered than gathered. Life seems to scatter us both externally, as we rush from one activity to another, and internally, as we try to manage all life's demands.

There are a few verses at the beginning of the Gospel of Mark that always cut through to my heart and beckon me to gather myself. It reads:

“That evening, after the sun was down, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city gathered around his door… In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place and prayed. Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” Jesus answered, Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.” *

This is what it means to live a gathered life. It is marked by a rhythm of retreat and re-engage - of input and output. We step away to a quiet place to gather ourselves and pray. Ronald Rolheiser describes prayer as relaxing into God’s goodness. When we gather ourselves in God’s presence, we find rest, clarity, and renewal. We let him define our agenda, and then we return to what lies before us.

We need to gather ourselves. We need clarity on what we need to do. People will be searching for us, seeking our help, time, and allegiance to their agenda. There are often very good things that need to be done. We need to learn, remember, and grow into who we are to be and what we are meant to do.

Dallas Willard is a teacher I look to for wisdom. He was once asked to describe Jesus in one word. After thinking about it, he said, relaxed. He also said, “What our life amounts to, at least for those who reach full age, is largely, if not entirely, a matter of what we become within.” It’s not our job, our ideology, our successes or our failures — it’s who we become that matters. Am I becoming more…

loving

joyful

wise

courageous

gentle

patient

kind

relaxed

Am I quick to listen and slow to speak? Am I becoming more myself — the self I was made to be, doing the work that I am meant to do?

The leaves are starting to fall and scatter, blanketing the ground below. It’s always a dramatic transformation to see them piled up together and then removed. And when the leaves are taken away, something amazing happens. Sometimes I wonder if we watch very closely, if we could actually see the green grass perk back to life and breathe again. Maybe the same can be true of our souls. Let’s take time to gather ourselves, considering all that is scattered around and within us. Let’s take time to be still and relax in God’s goodness so we can breathe in new life and return to the demands of our day, knowing what matters and what we need to do.

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* See Mark 1: 32-38