Would Jesus have stayed in bed?

This weekend I am at the Church of Scotland's National Youth Assembly - an awesome event that has a very special place in my heart.

This morning a small (select) group of hardy souls (including me!) stumbled, crawled, perhaps even bounced (well ok the chances of that are slim) and went for a wee jog round the Quay. Our numbers were somewhat depleted from yesterday’s high of eleven. Many of the keen voices of last night and their brave “we’ll run the bridge tomorrow” failed to show.
On the face of it, the grand idea of a morning run now could have looked like a really dumb idea. The idea had been borne out a fit of pique about the early start to each day and the ‘pledge’ I had been asked to metaphorically sign up for by being a staff member – it had been kind of “if it’s going to be like a boot camp then why not have what all good boot camps have – a morning run!” Daft I know – how many boot camps do you know that take place in 4 start hotel?

Anyway back to the four hardy souls – 2 staff, 2 delegates. Was it a waste of time? Do you think Jesus would have stayed in bed or come for the run? He would certainly have been up late last night dancing the night away and enjoying the ceilidh. He loved a party after all. He enjoyed being with people and could really whip up a crowd. But so many of his encounters dealt with the individual; he could feed 5000 but equally he could seek out the individual within that crowd – Zacchaeus, the bleeding woman. He cared about the individual. He wasn’t worried about numbers. He didn’t measure success by how many people turned up. He measured success by lives changed, encounters that turned lives round. So I am guessing that Jesus would have been waiting in the foyer this morning ready for a run, not caring that there were only four of us. He would have met everyone else last night at the party. He would have jogged along with us and chatted and may be, just may be touched one of our hearts. But then again maybe he did...........