Relationship in the Task

Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home.

She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word.

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me."

But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things;

but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

Luke 10:38-42

The world is full of distractions from our relationship with Christ. Even the most godly intentions can miss the point ever so slightly. Martha got caught up in the task of serving God while Mary focused on the relationship with God. Even though serving is great we cannot miss the point of God's message: relationship.

Being a "Martha" myself I cannot help but justify her point of view. No, I'm not saying Jesus was wrong here, oh no never! My thoughts are just that we need both types of people, the ones who will labor to get the job done and others who are more free flowing who go with the flow. Jesus mentions this indirectly as well. By spending time with God in relationship, serving will come naturally as Jesus Himself served. Even His greatest commandment to love God and love others reflected that all the laws and commandments come from those 2 commands. Same with serving; it'll come as we learn to love God.

I think about Martha and her mindset while she was serving. It wasn't even the serving part that she went off track, it was serving for the sake of task. I wonder if Martha paused and reflected, "wow, I have the Son of God, the Messiah, in my home! I wonder what kind of lessens He has, what kind of foods He likes, what's on His mind? What's heaven like?" I wonder if Martha even thought about those things. In service today when Keola lost his keys and Jun talked about how anxiety comes into play when we don't trust God. I loved that message but at the same time was a little discouraged because that thought wasn't in my mind. Why is that? Was I so caught up in task again that I forgot about God's teachings in every part of my life? Yes! I need to pray more to set the tone for my correct servant hood.

Thank You Jesus for being a constant reminder, not only through the written word but through Your people. Help me to grow in faith and train my mind to keep You at the most obvious place in all my tasks. Help me to never lose opportunities to serve You correctly! In the wonderful name of Jesus Christ I pray, Amen!