Saturday, January 03, 2009

Mary vs Martha

Last week at BCC Jeff spoke about Mary and Martha, that same old story about the one who does too much and the one who's relaxing. I always have trouble with this story-wondering-if Martha's really supposed to do less, that's fine, but then WHO is going to do everything?

I tried the past few days to do less, but now the house is messy and I feel cranky.

In this new year, I'm going to try to do less and enjoy more, but it's hard. How do you know what's fun and what's obligation and what's important and what's not?

I took 10 blogs off of my reader. That ought to save a few minutes a day.

Any help?

2 comments:

malh said...

One thing Jeff brought out that really spoke to me was that Martha was frustrated in HIS presence, which should have brought her peace. How many times am I frustrated when I could just look to Him, whose presence is ALWAYS with me--Emmanuel.

Jenny said...

I remember hearing a sermon once in which the pastor spoke about how the things Martha was doing weren't wrong in themselves; how those things were actually acts of service and love the women did for Jesus and the disciples, providing food and hospitality (which we are encouraged in the scriptures to do). It was the fact that she was irritated that Mary wasn't helping that was her problem, the fact that she was "worried and upset." The thing Mary chose that was better was choosing to enjoy and be at peace in His presence, like Malh said.

Maybe it's a matter of "a season for everything"? Like, we need to remember that the very best, necessary thing is to just be in His presence, learning from Him, and we should not neglect that - but that, of course, there are some necessary chores in life, which we should do joyfully as service to Christ, and without worrying or getting upset at others?