Living a Martha Life with a Mary Heart

Luke 10:38-42 is one of my favorite passages of Scripture:

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 is better, and it will not be taken away from her."



I want to be like her:

Eyes closed. A smile playing on her lips. Ears picking up every word. Heart wide open as the sound of living water drowns out every other sound in the room. Every syllable soothes her soul. Every word she hears is a healing balm. Every breath she hears exhaled is the source of life. It is as if there is no one else in the room but her. Her heart leaps and tears begin to flow as she is swept away to a place where every one of her secrets is known. In this place, she is completely and amazingly loved to her very core. There is no fear here. There is no pain. There is no worry. There is nothing more important than being right here, right now. This is the most important place on earth. This is where she was designed to be.

This is Mary--sitting at the feet of Jesus. And I want to be like her. I want to be able to sit at the feet of my Lord and just bask in THE LIGHT. I want to be able to let everything in my life wait while I feed on the BREAD OF LIFE. I want to be able to just shut out every noise as I sit by and listen to the soul-soothing, rushing waters.

I want to be like Mary.

But I am more like Martha. Running around serving, when my soul desires to be served by the one who came to SERVE.

Cooking, cleaning, taking care of everyone and everything--loving it but feeling lonely and disconnected all at the same time. There is always another load of laundry
and another load of dishes. Always something to DO. Sometimes I just want to BE.

I am living a Martha life with a Mary heart.