Martha

Luke 10:38-41

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'
"'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'"

So this summer has been busy, and I have been working hard, and I honestly think I can say that what I am doing I am doing for God, or I'm at least trying to do it for him. I can also say I think the things I have done are good things and important things. But I also think I keep missing something. I think God must have had me in mind when he had this story put into the Bible...

I have always found it easier to do, do, do, than to just sit and spend time with anyone, including God. I often catch myself replacing the time I should be spending with my God doing things for him. I often spend so much time doing, that I lose my focus on God. I start just doing, instead of doing for him. And I start thinking I know what God wants me to do. But all of a sudden, just like Martha, I realize that God is not acting quite like I figured he would. So I pause in frustration, and ask God what he does want me to do (vs. 40a), but then, I don't bother waiting for the answer, I just tell God what it is that he must want me to do (vs. 40b). And then I think I know what God wants, because I asked, and rush off to do it. But more often than not, what I end up doing is asking God what he wants and then telling him what he wants, which is usually what I was doing before I asked.

I think one thing God is teaching me is that I can do, do, do all I want, but unless it is not only for him, but with him, it's going to fail. I think if God gave each of us a personalized Bible mine would say something along the lines of, "Alicia, Alicia, I am all that is needed. I will never be taken from you. Come, sit at my feet and listen and learn, then you will know me and what I want, and we will go do it."