Why must we eat? We eat because if we don't, we get weak and eventually we die if our body is starved for food for days. When we get weak, we don't have what it takes to do our daily work, activities, fun and play. Instead, we become susceptible to all kinds of ailments, diseases etc. So why do we eat? We eat so that we get filled up with the energy and strength to do the work while we are here alive on earth.
Why must we pray? We pray because if we don't, our souls get weak and we become vulnerable to feeling sorry for ourselves, we allow darkness and sin to creep in. We think it's ok to be indifferent to situations, 'as long as it doesn't concern me', we do as we please and we please who we want to please just so that 'everybody lives happily ever after'. Priorities get all mixed up!
Martha, from today's Gospel reading (Luke 10:38-42) was so eager to please the Lord with her chores and service to ensure that He was well taken care of. Mary on the other hand, sat at the feet of Jesus listening to him as He spoke. Upset with her sister for not helping her, Martha asked Jesus to ask Mary to come and help her instead of sitting there. Aha! What did Jesus say to that?
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42)
That's us right there. We get so caught up with the doing, that we forget that Jesus our Lord is right there in our midst!! Doing the Lord's work is great, oh ho, but it's never easy and you know it. You serve the Lord and his people in ministry work, and just like Mary, if done with the right heart and spirit, one that is open to the voice of the Lord, you should never grow tiresome, burnt out and weary because the Lord will give you rest ["Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." Matt 11:28].
Was Martha wrong to be so eager to serve the Lord? No. She had every right to feel excited to welcome Jesus into her home, and I mean come on, it's King Jesus coming through your doors and into your house, of course all you Marthas out there will want to make sure He is well taken care of. We have played hosts to guests before, some of which you may regard as 'very important guests' and extra measures are taken to ensure that everything is there to put the guest at ease and comfort. So what went wrong for her? Just like Martha, many of us can relate to her (myself included!!), we go about doing doing doing and get so tired, burned out and complain A LOT about this and that. Jesus was right there, in her house. Martha got caught up with the 'doing' and got consumed with feelings of negativity towards her sister Mary, who had chosen to sit and listen to Jesus.
Doing great works and acts of kindness and goodness may leave you filling empty and discontented, if done without the foundation of a good solid prayer life. Yes, just like Martha, your intentions are good and pure. However, it becomes distorted over time when you grow weary and tired and have no idea why you got into the doing in the first place. That first place will have to be the only place you start and end with. That is sitting with Jesus, and spending that time with Him, in prayer.
Jesus is right here in our hearts and lives, right now as you read this, He is with us and inviting you and I, to come and sit with him and spend time with him. If you feel like talking to Him, then talk, have an exchange of words and thoughts with him, tell him what's on your mind, He already knows it anyway so you can go straight to the point to tell him how you feel. I would however, recommend you setting aside some quiet minutes alone with the Lord. Put away your cellphone, tv, music, game box, calendar planners, gadgets and anything and everything that is keeping you away from the one thing you really need. Go.
Spend that quiet time with Jesus.
