Home School Curriculum Experts

Well, I did get sick after all. But since I don’t even have time to get sick, I sure don’t have time to blog about it. So, while my immune system is artificially propped up with ibuprofen and decongestant, I have a few minutes to reflect on something I was thinking about this morning. Early this morning (which is not my best time, by the way.) But as I lay in bed trying to doze off for a few more minutes, I was trying to pray and thinking about all the things I had to accomplish in my day (by the way, in case you have ever noticed, these two things by their very nature *cannot* be done simultaneously). And so as I tossed back and forth between the two, I started thinking about the fact that this is my struggle with life in general. If you are familiar with the story in the Bible of Mary and Martha, I am definitely Martha. In the story, Jesus is visiting their home (they are sisters). Martha is running around cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, answering e-mails, clipping coupons, chauffeuring…all while Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus and being lazy. (Oops, did I perhaps tell this in my own translation?) Now, from a right-minded, God-centered point of view, who was doing the right thing? Mary, of course. From the point of view of the Marthas of the world, those of us who realize that we would all starve and sit in filth if no one did any work, who was doing the right thing? Mary, of course…what??
I can only speak from this Martha’s point of view, but when I am confronted with what is the right choice (even when the person confronting me is myself) I can never justify that working myself to death is the right choice over sitting at the feet of Jesus. The problem is, I know that. The trouble comes with putting it into practice, when I know that the work also has to be done. Where is the balance? Is there a balance? As I looked back at the story of the two sisters (found in Luke 10:38-42) I noticed something about Martha. First, the passage never indicates that she spent *any* time at Jesus feet, it only says she was “distracted” by all the preparations that had to be made. Ouch!!! Jesus gently chided her by pointing out that she was worried and upset by many things, and then told her that only one thing was needed – to sit at his feet. I believe that Jesus was not chastising her, nor even saying that working was bad (after all, in many places in Scripture hard work is encouraged and blessed). No, Jesus was showing her the solution to her worry, distraction, and distress…simply sitting at his feet. Was he saying that the work did not need to be done? No. He was ministering deliverance to her. Jesus knew that for Martha (and for the many Marthas that would come after her) work and the care of a home and family would take such a place in her mind that it would crowd out a relationship with Him, and in doing so would rob her even of the joy of caring for her home and family.
That is the place that I find myself in, more days and more years than I care to count. I am the consummate Martha, and in continuing in that pattern instead of in the deliverance that Jesus is unwaveringly holding out to me, I am subjecting myself to the lifelong bondage of distraction, worry, and stress. And unfortunately, I am teaching my children what is most important to me. As I lay in bed and thought of all these things this morning, I prayed. Even though it doesn’t make rational sense to me, if though I don’t see how I can be less stressed by potentially getting less done, and even though I don’t even know how to go about changing….I do realize one thing. My Martha way of life has never worked for me. Maybe it’s time I go and sit at the feet of Jesus.