"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things..." Luke 10:41
"Worried and upset about many things..." Poor Martha. Poor Me. I AM MARTHA!!! How often I let the cares of this world and things that are really so small and insignificant in the scope of time and eternity steal my peace and my joy.
Martha was a woman after my own heart. She was probably an event planner on the side. She liked to get things done - Pronto. You know the old saying, "Plan your work and work your plan." She liked it when the plan came together and everyone did their job. She wanted everything to go smoothly and look nice. That's not bad, is it? No, but it's not always good either. Why not?
Sometimes we get so busy working our plan that we lose sight of who we're working for. The deadline becomes more important than the bottom line. The side things begin to overshadow the main thing. The presentation takes precedence over the purpose and we lose sight of why we're really working and why we're really here.
Notice earlier in this passage the scripture tells us that Martha was "distracted by all the preparations that had to be made" and later that she asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!". Have you noticed that when you become distracted by the preparations you soon slip into the "don't you care" mode? It always goes downhill from there. Self pity is an ugly thing isn't it? It doesn't look good on you or on me.
Mary had the right idea. She chose to be focused on the most important thing in the room. The Lord Jesus took priority over everything else - as He should! We know that in our heads but why do we often struggle to make that choice? Maybe because "we" are so often at the center instead of "He". Maybe the preparations too often define us and that's why they have to be "just right".
Maybe things don't have to be "just right" after all. Maybe Martha should have ordered "Take Out". You think???
