Mark 1:38

But Jesus said to them, “Let us go somewhere else, into the country towns nearby so that I can make my proclamation in them also; for that was why I came.”


creatures of habit
rate repetition high

we know what works
at least what to expect

profit is made off repeat customers
relationships deepen with shared time

let’s go back and do it again
is a predictable response

sometimes we glimpse
an invisible apple always present

something else is needed
than a multitude of yesterdays

dangerous or not
misunderstood or not

we follow a ripple
not a sinking stone

prayer intends to clarify purpose
spark energy to visit beyond

we test our trust
beloved healing ho


When our temptation to be seen as greater than we are has been prayed through, there is increased energy to set a direction less taken. Over time this will make all the difference.

The construct here does make it trickier to figure out when this insight of moving on came. Jesus may have come out of Capernaum to break a healing-only model and this may have been needed with the exhaustion of the previous Sabbath. Jesus may have come out to pray his temptations and in so doing needed greater intentionality given to the preaching part of his announcing good news.

Healing—Preaching. How might these enhance one another? How do they assist folks to turn from a past of getting the same lackluster results from their actions to a future that does find the poetics of Heaven come on Earth to be realized?

When we substitute our past life for Capernaum, our prayer time will ask us what we have come out for? This will be the flip-side of finding our temptations giving us all manner of reasons to return to the tried but not necessarily true.

For the disciples a next town becomes a new wilderness. May they learn more about their temptations and ministering angels there.