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 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 its better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38 -42)

At our church we always read an Old Testament passage, a Psalm, a New Testament passage, and something from the Gospels. The passage above was read this past Sunday. A couple of things really stuck out to me from our pastor's sermon that I wanted to share. The first was just how short that famous story is and yet we can all relate to it. In just a few lines we see family dynamics and personality clashes. Being a "Martha" myself, I've always been a little sympathetic with her question, but the problem isn't really her question. The problem is the heart behind the question, because she is either jealous of Mary's ability to just stop worrying about everything that needed to be done or resentful and angry that she is doing all the work. Either way, she's not serving with a free heart.

The second point that our pastor made is that if you are a Martha-type personality, then you probably need to schedule time with the Lord. A Mary-type will not mind leaving the dishes piled in the sink and the laundry undone until later, but a Martha really needs to purposely put aside all the busyness of everyday life and intentionally take time away. I'm definately the Martha-type and had been thinking that I needed to schedule time, but with all the busyness of life it can be hard for me to schedule the time and stick with it. And, with every new stage in my life (jobs, kids, etc) I feel like I have to re-think my approach to scheduling. So this story and sermon came up for me at just the right time. We are getting ready for a new school year soon and I'm hoping to re-order some of my time to make time with the Lord a more intentional part of my day.

I will have to let me more "Mary-type" husband know when that is though, so he can help me stick to it and maybe take over with the kids :) He's always willing to help when I ask, but the things that keep me from sitting down, just don't have the same effect on him :)

So are you a Mary or a Martha?