Being Mary in a Martha World

I think it is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.
I say that, but I have so many favorites, and the more I read of them, the more I love and my favorites list continues to grow!

Back to Mary and Martha. I think I love this story because I can so relate to Martha. Like seriously, I get this woman! Dear old Martha who was doing what she thought was best. Making herself “busy” but then becoming resentful at those around her who were just sitting!

I feel her pain. How she longs to do the right thing, but how she misses the mark!
I was reading the Passion Translation and I love how it was worded:

“Mary sat down attentively before the Master, absorbing every revelation He shared. But Martha became exasperated by finishing the numerous household chores in preparation for her guests, so she interrupted Jesus and said “Lord, don’t you think its unfair that my sister left me to do all the work by myself? You should tell her to get up and help me.”

The Lord answered her “Martha, my beloved Martha. Why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Are they really that important?”

Oh, how I can relate to Martha!
How many times do I get distracted by what I think is important and forget to sit at His feet? Or think I am so busy, I don’t have time to sit at His feet. Or get resentful at other people because they are just sitting and I am so busy!!

Oh, how I long to be Mary in a Martha world. When the world tells me I need to be busy to be important or valued. How being busy is worn as a badge of honor, when in actual fact, all Jesus is asking me to do is sit at His feet. To lose all the distractions (yes, even the good ones!) and sit with Him. To give Him my undivided attention, to just sit!

In this strange season we are in, it has been easier than ever to just sit. It sounds like a bad thing but it’s not! My mind would tell me that sitting is lazy and I must “do”. I’m having to reset my thinking and learn that sitting is all Jesus wants from me. If the only thing I ever did again were to sit at His feet, He would be happy, and so should I be!

It’s the world that throws their standards at me. They try and determine what my busy looks like and what my sitting looks like! “They” (whoever they are!) try to tell me what’s okay and what’s not. But at the end of the day, I am accountable to only One, and if my heart is right with Him, then all is well, despite what the world would tell me!

So I am learning to sit.
I am learning to be His beloved.
I am learning to be more like Mary.

Yes, those Martha tendencies are always there, but the more I sit, the more I listen, and the more I follow His direction for my life, the slower life seems to become. And a slower life centered on Him is what I long for.

And so I quietly sit and I say a prayer. I thank Jesus for Martha and her heart which is so like mine. I thank Him for Mary and the obedience to just sit. I thank Him for the lessons I am learning from both of these beautiful women. And I thank Him for seasons of serving and seasons of sitting, and I ask for wisdom to walk in both and recognize which season I am in!