Martha, Martha, Martha

In my "She Reads Truth" devotional about the women in the Bible one morning, I read about Martha. You know the one...the one that is busy serving while Mary sits quietly at Jesus' feet, enthralled in the very person that He is. My devo noted that Martha really gets a bad rap here. And I have to agree. I mean we all need people who actually DO things, people who get things done. Martha was one of those people. She got things done. That's a noble characteristic right? I tend to appreciate that characteristic in Martha. Her motives were not wrong. She wanted to serve her Messiah right?

The problem with Martha wasn't that she was serving...it was that she was serving INSTEAD of spending time with her reason for serving. She wasn't taking the time she needed to spend with Christ. That's me. That's you. That is so many of us. We get so wrapped up in the serving and the doing and the going here and there that we miss the opportunity to just sit down with Jesus and...BE. The time to serve and do and go will come...it will be there. But how often do we take the time to just be with our Savior? How often do we take the time to sit at His feet and offer up praises? How often do we take the time to just be silent and listen? 

Sadly, I know the answer for me. Mary got it. She understood. She understood the importance of just being with Jesus instead of rushing about trying to get things done. She wasn't sitting back and letting Martha do all the work. She wasn't being lazy, as I'm sure I would have assumed had I been Martha back then. She was enjoying some quality time with her Savior...something we should all make time to do each day. And Jesus? He wanted to spend that time with Martha too. 

Sometimes, in this Martha world where it's all about planning and going and doing, I think Jesus just simply wants to take the proverbial calendar or broom or cookbook or laundry basket or car keys from our hands and just sit down with us. We need to learn to rest in Him. 

One of my favorite worship songs is "The More I Seek You." It comes to mind as I think about trying to be more like Mary in this ever growing Martha world. Part of the song reads, "I want to sit at Your feet, drink from the cup in Your hands, lay back against You and breathe, feel Your heart beat. This love is so deep. It's more than I can stand. I melt in Your peace. It's overwhelming."

That's what I want. I want to learn to take a break once in a while and lay back against the Savior of the world and take in all that He is. That is my prayer...that I would learn to rest in Him.

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