Friends I have a confession to make, I have been too busy for Jesus. While preparing a lesson on Martha and Mary for my Sunday school class I realized that I am like Martha in the sense that I have kept myself way too busy to focus on Jesus. For those of you who are not familiar with this story it’s about two Sisters who along with their Brother Lazarus were good friends of Jesus. In Luke 10:38-42 NIV we hear about a time where Jesus stopped by and shared a meal with Martha and Mary.
“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 was too busy to enjoy His company. 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." Luke 10:38-42
Can anyone relate to this story? Do we get distracted by all the preparations everyday life throws at us? I know I do. Another question could be do we bring these distractions upon ourselves? I think we do. In today’s society we have some many things to do that waste time and everyday it seems like we invent new ways to cram even more stuff into the little time we do have. Computers, iphones and TiVo are just a few items that I have used to cram more junk into my time. Another thing our generation has started doing is overloading or over scheduling our daily lives. We feel like we have to have something going on at all times which usually leads to over committing ourselves and getting stressed out.
Last year I wrote a blog about the Sabbath and how important God felt that day of rest was for us. But I hear the same excuses “I have too much going on to take a day off”. I have to clean house, kids have ball practice, birthday parties, grass needs cutting..ect ect ect. But the funny thing is most of your well known preachers take a day off to rest and you can imagine how busy their schedules are. So what suffers as a result? I feel our relationship with our Lord and Savior suffers. I have actually heard people say that Sunday is the only day they can relax and spend time with their families. I have asked “can’t you do that at Church”? I also get the “sorry we couldn’t make it last week, we have been so busy” I’m not sure why they apologize to me, I wasn’t offended by their absence. But you get what I’m trying to say here.
So back to the two Sisters, you have to love how Jesus responded to Martha’s complaint about her Sister just sitting at his feet. He tells Martha "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." What he was trying to say was nothing is more important than his teaching and that Mary knew it was better to listen to him instead of being worried and upset about other things.
This lesson has really hit home with me and tells me that I need to spend more time with Jesus and less time with things of this world. Jesus said in John 16:33 NIV "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." Jesus has overcome the world and with his help I feel we can do the same. It’s going to be tough turning off the computer, Tv and xbox but I feel if I put Him first then I will be able to have a lot more peace and enjoy the life He has blessed me with and who’s know I still might be able enjoy a few minutes online playing games
