“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” Marky Mark 1:35

 

I hadn’t known a lot about Mark Wahlberg other than he was a Boy Band bad boy who liked to show off his underwear and actually did some jail time for battery. I’ve also seen some of his movies and my boys can do a great impersonation of him.

But, what I recently became aware of was that his life had changed. He is a practicing Catholic who also has a personal and deep relationship with Jesus Christ.

In recent interviews, Wahlberg has referred to his faith as the “anchor that supports everything I do.” In addition, he has said “my faith in God is what makes me a better man” and “it’s the most important part of my life.”

I just saw an article about his “Typical Daily Schedule”. It’s pretty shocking.

In addition to regular snacking, playing a round of golf in under 2 hours and an hour in Cryo Chamber Recovery, his schedule reveals some significant priorities in his life.

The most jarring item in his schedule is not even the fact that he wakes up at 2:30am, but the reason why he wakes up so early. Fifteen minutes after waking up, at 2:45am he nestles into ‘praying’ for a half hour! Wow! Who do you know that does that?

Hmmm. I remember someone in the Gospels who would do that regularly. Oh, yes! It was Jesus.

In Mark (Not Marky Mark) 1:35 it says, “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”

Wow, Mark Wahlberg is doing what Jesus did?

You can say, “Well, that’s Mark Wahlberg. He’s got tons of money and resources and can schedule himself any way he chooses. I don’t have that kind of flexibility. I have a long work day that begins early and I need my workout time and time with family and some personal time. I can’t do that.”

That’s true but a major part of that truth is that he can choose to schedule himself any way he wants and this is the schedule he makes for himself – making priority “1” his prayer time with God the Father. In order to do that, he skips the Hollywood pleasures and goes to bed early at 7:30pm when his kids go to bed. He then gets 7 hours of sleep before waking up like Jesus, rising a long while before daylight. This was Jesus’ precious time with his Father in intimate dialogue.

A number of years ago, the acronym WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) became popular. It is a great, challenging question we can use to guide us in our daily walk. But, I contend that a better directive and one that Mark Wahlberg practices is to DWJD (Do What Jesus Did)

If we are to be followers of Jesus Christ, then we might consider adopting some of his ways – some of his practices. That’s what the Disciples did. They followed their Rabbi – listening, watching, imitating Him. Paul later challenges us by writing, “Imitate me as I imitate Jesus.”

We don’t all have the flexibility of Mark Wahlberg but I know for myself there are routines that I have established that could be changed to accommodate more, regular time to spend with God. When I do it, I have experienced exponential growth in our relationship.

I would like to think that Mark Wahlberg sets his schedule as he does because of the joy and fulfillment it brings. He certainly schedules time with his family, time for golf, time for workouts and lots of snacking. I’m sure he enjoys all of that. I’m also sure that his dedication with spending time with his Heavenly Father as the first thing he does, he does because it is life-giving, not out of guilt or for doing some form of penance.

There is a group of guys I know that meet early every Saturday morning at 6am for prayer. Getting up early on Saturday is a challenge. But, they do it because they know God honors their sacrificial, willing hearts by showing up every time they meet – in big and small ways.

So, if you are challenged by this in any way, please don’t respond out of guilt, but consider scheduling time with The Father as a priority because of your desire to grow deeper and experience greater joy in your relationship with God – to get to know Him more fully! As the Apostle Peter encourages us “to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

So, today I pray,

“Father, give me the guidance, wisdom and strength to make time with you more of a priority. Strip away that fear of what I may be sacrificing. Replace it with confidence that those things I move around or even displace, that you are big enough to fill the gap and make me even more productive then I could ever be under my own schedule. I hand this day over to you. I’m pretty sure I know what I can do with this day – let’s see what you can do!”