When 1 + 1 = ENOUGH!

“When the people saw Him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, ‘Surely, He is the Prophet we have been expecting!’ When Jesus saw that they were ready to force Him to be their king, He slipped away into the hills by Himself.” (John 6:14-15 NLT)

The verses above come right after Jesus had miraculously provided food for 5,000 men, plus their wives and children. As you’d expect, the people were overwhelmed with awe and they wanted to declare Jesus their literal king right then and there, but that was never Jesus’ desire or plan, so He “slipped” away.

The word used that is translated “slipped” here means “to withdraw, so as to leave a room; of those who through fear seek some other place.” (Strong’s) Make no mistake, Jesus wasn’t running from the crowd, He was running to His Father, and fear wasn’t His motivation, love was.

Alone time with His Father was a recurring necessity in Jesus’ life, as it must be in ours. To walk with Jesus and not spend time alone with Him is to miss the point of walking with Him. Following Jesus isn’t simply a commitment we keep, it’s a relationship we nurture, so, to miss time alone with Him is to miss the point of our relationship.

Why is our one-on-one time with Jesus so critical? Because, as He said in John 15:5: “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.” Alienation leads to ineffectiveness that leads to estrangement. Just as with our family and friends, time with Jesus is a choice, a choice that will lead to intimacy or isolation. At some point we must decide that, as the old hymn says: “if none go with me, still I will follow!”

In that context we can think of our walk with Jesus as Jesus + me = ENOUGH! However, it has much broader implications than just my personal walk with Christ. His design and desire are that we walk together, but the strength of our togetherness grows out of the strength of our oneness with Him, especially in our marriage and family.

I love this story by Jim Mitchell (See I Do Every Day: It’s a No, and It’s Unanimous – 2022) about a very frightening and challenging time in his marriage. He’s applied for what was, in his mind, his “dream” job. It was everything he could have ever hoped or imagined the perfect job would be, but when he got “the call,” the board responsible for hiring voted unanimously to NOT hire him.

As you might expect it was crushing, but Jim writes: “Then something beautiful happened. ‘It’s a no, and it’s unanimous’ became our rallying cry. Words that had wounded also created a defiant us-against-the-world resolve in the face of questions: “Is it true that not a single person sees our value? Has God really abandoned us? Will we put joy on hold and stop dreaming of a bright future together?”

‘It’s a NO!’ We said it together and we meant it. A unanimous vote of two. Looking back, I know God was right alongside us the whole time. So, I would never seek to diminish His presence. But I’ll also tell you, this was a profoundly human moment for us, where we looked each other in the eye and learned beyond any doubt that one plus one does not simply equal two. Sometimes in a marriage, when spouses cling to one another as God intends, one plus one equals enough.”

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊