By David ReayMonday 23 Jan 2023LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
As they continued their journey, Jesus came to a village and a woman called Martha welcomed him to her house. She had a sister by the name of Mary who settled down at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what he said. But Martha was very worried about her elaborate preparations and she burst in, saying, “Lord, don’t you mind that my sister has left me to do everything by myself? Tell her to get up and help me!” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, my dear, you are worried and bothered about providing so many things. Only a few things are really needed, perhaps only one. Mary has chosen the best part and you must not tear it away from her!” (PHILLIPS)
What use is it to have lots of irons in the fire if the fire is going out? We can be very busy doing all sorts of things for Jesus and others but these activities may conceal a hollowness.
We can too easily become attracted to the idea of service and busyness over and above a basic attraction to Jesus. We can come to measure our value in terms of the amount of things we do. We may get to a point where we imagine ourselves to be indispensable.
In the biblical story, Martha was very busy doing good things. Mary was quietly doing a better thing. It is not as if this story tells us to just sit dreamily at Jesus’ feet while others do the hard work. It may well be that Mary does get up and help in the kitchen. Serving Jesus and others does involve rolling our sleeves up and doing the mundane tasks.
But first things first. We are to be active Marthas, but before that, we need to be reflective Marys. No problem with being busy, but spending time with Jesus means our busyness is less of a burden and more of a blessing. Staying connected to him means that what we do for him is fruitful and not futile.
Only as we cease our restless doing will we find out what really needs to be done.
Blessings
David
After an inspirational run on Hope 103.2, Lifewords with David Reay will be delivering its final reflection on Friday 27 January. But, great news, David contributes to Real Hope devotions along with a variety of other deep faith thinkers that will be delivered straight to your inbox from Monday 30 January – so you won’t have to skip a devotional beat! If you prefer an audio version, we also have Real Hope – The Podcast.