As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." - Luke 10:38-42
The other morning, I was sitting outside on our back porch with my son, my daughter and my in-laws. Graysen is eight months and is prone to spitting up, and this day was no different. Mom had gotten hit. Granddad had gotten hit. Then MawMaw took one for the team. After all the laughter subsided I looked down where some of the remains had landed on the porch, and hundreds of ants had already descended upon the feast. There were no ants before, but in a matter of minutes, there was an army. I watched as they scurried about, bumping into one another, hauling their bounty back to their castle. They were busy...I mean busy.
As I look around at friends and families in our community, I am reminded of the ants. Busyness seems to be the altar at which we sell our souls as young parents and ambitious employees. We're busy with work, we're busy with activities, we're busy with church, we're busy with family, we're busy, busy, busy.
This syndrome is not unique to our culture, and it's been around for centuries. In our story, Jesus visits the home of two busy women and ends up teaching us a significant lesson for today. The lesson revolves around the issue of doing and being. Martha was busy doing things - important things. It's hard to have a dinner if no one fixes the meal and gets the table ready. Mary was busy being - sitting at the feet of a rabbi was a Jewish reference to being a disciple. Mary's devotion to Christ caused her to pause.
In our busyness it is vital that we remember to pause. The psalmist encourages us to "Step out of the traffic! Take a long loving look at [the Lord], your High God" (Psalm 46:10, The Message). When are we pausing to absorb our relationship. No day is reserved any longer. Saturdays are full. Sundays are full. Mondays are full. Tuesdays are full. Wednesdays are full. You get the picture.
Our Father is more concerned about being the church and warns us about doing church all the time. This is not a struggle between what is right and what is wrong. It's about what is good and what is best. Martha worried about good things, but Mary focused on the best thing.
prayTODAY ::
Find some time to this week to pause and reflect on where you are in your relationship with the Lord. Are you too busy to stop? Is your schedule too full to simply sit and be? Rest was important enough that God gave one seventh of the creation project over to it. If it was that important to Him, then how much more it should be for us.
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