Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village:
and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord,
dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful:
and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Luke 10:38-42 (KJV)
and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord,
dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful:
and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Luke 10:38-42 (KJV)
It was an Easter morning two years ago that I couldn’t make up my mind what to do. I had family arriving that would follow us home right after church. Easter Dinner was at our house and there were preparations still to be made before their arrival. I had a narrow window of opportunity to attend to some last minute details. Another church was using our church building to put on the annual Easter breakfast that morning. My husband is the pastor of the church, but it wasn’t OUR church putting it on, they were just using our church. Surely, I wasn’t expected to attend? In fact, they probably wouldn’t even realize I was missing.
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| free vintage graphic |
The church is about 100 feet from our home, the Parsonage. The parking lot started to fill up with cars. My husband called to me as he left for the church “are you coming?” I told him to just go ahead, I hadn’t decided yet. In a quandary, I was torn between doing what I really knew was the right thing and what I knew I “needed” to attend to. I couldn’t do both, and needed to make a decision. Time was running out as the church parking lot was full now.
I stood in front of the bathroom mirror drying my hair and in utter exasperation, called out to the Lord over the noise of the hairdryer “I don’t know what you want me to do. What should I do???” As soon as I had uttered those words it was as if an audible voice spoke to me and I distinctly heard “MARY AND MARTHA”. The answer to my quandary became crystal clear. As you can imagine, it didn’t take me long to walk the 100 feet to the church and join my husband. I had a wonderful time, saw people I don’t get to see often, and would have missed out on an incredible blessing that morning.
Martha loved the Lord wholeheartedly but on this occasion she didn’t use the best judgment and was distracted by all that needed to be done. Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) believed that Martha’s mistake wasn’t her serving, but rather that she allowed it to distract her attention from Jesus. Spurgeon believed that we should be Martha and Mary in one. He wrote, “We should do much service, and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune.”
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Work, hobbies, volunteering, helping others, even church obligations – those are all important and good things, but if we become so obsessed or busy with the tasks that it distracts us from a relationship with God, something has to change. Sometimes, you need to say no to good things so you have room for the best things. Join me in asking God to help us see the proper order of our daily priorities.
Here is a link to a free pdf book by RBC Ministries – Mary & Martha: Balancing Life’s Priorities
Graphics used in today’s post are from my own collection, public domain, Starsunflower Studio, Sweetly Scrapped, and The Feathered Nest.
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| Compliments of The Feathered Nest |
