Can I confess something? If you don’t want to hear it, then you might want to skip this blog. I’ll see you again next week.

My confession: for years I’ve struggled with the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Okay, I said it. Martha always seemed to get a bad rap when I heard sermons on this passage. After all, someone had to do the work. We can’t all just sit at Jesus’s feet, can we?

I struggle with the story because I can be too much like Martha, “anxious and troubled about many things.” Or as the New Living Translation puts it, “worried and upset over all these details!” And like Martha, at times, I’ve wanted to tell Jesus to tell some others to get to work and help. There is a lot of work to do. Even Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few.”

During this busy season, a season with unexpected changes and plans revised to deal with those changes, I started thinking about the story of Mary and Martha. The story drew me in more based on some different things I have been reading and my own busyness and anxiety, at times, over all to be done.

Recently, as I sat in the quiet and stillness of the morning, I looked at the passage again. “There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” I felt as if God said, “The work you will have with you always, but take the time to be with Me. No one can take that away from you.”

I’m starting to see the story of Mary and Martha differently. Yes, there is work to do, but it starts with time at his feet, not only apart from the work but also in the middle of it.  I don’t want to be running around anxious and worried about all there is to do, but resting in the everlasting arms, looking to Him and following Him, choosing the good portion, and keeping my eyes on Him. Whether in the stillness of the morning or the course of the day, let my eyes and heart be lifted to Him.

But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”(Luke 10:40-42 NLT)