Life's priorities

Luke 10:38-42 (NCV)

While Jesus and his followers were traveling, Jesus went into a town. A woman named Martha let Jesus stay at her house.  Martha had a sister named Mary, who was sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to him teach.  But Martha was busy with all the work to be done. She went in and said, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me alone to do all the work? Tell her to help me."  But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things. Only one thing is important. Mary has chosen the better thing, and it will never be taken away from her."

Martha and Mary can be viewed as representatives of two different ways that people deal with the stress and conflict from being too busy.  Martha is like a Type A personality whereas Mary is more laid back.  It was Mary who used expensive ointment to wipe the feet of Jesus while Martha was doing all the preparing and serving the meal (John 12:2-3).  It is Martha in this passage who is the busy one while Mary was listening to Jesus teach (although it must be mentioned that both Mary and Martha made the statement to Jesus concerning their brother Lazarus that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus would not have died (John 11:21, 32). 

Martha complains to Jesus that it is unfair that she is doing all the work.  Actually she’s complaining that Jesus doesn’t appear to care that she’s doing all the work.  Her work was necessary, but perhaps not urgent or essential although she thought it was.  We all do work that is necessary, but do we do it in place of more essential things?  Since the example here is dealing with time with Jesus, how many of us are guilty of doing other things in place of spending time with Jesus?  Note His statement that “only one thing is important” and that one important thing is the relationship with Jesus, our Savior and Lord.

Think about your activities in a typical day.  Would any be characterized as important by Jesus?  Now, indeed, we do need to do the necessary tasks, but we also know that we may do tasks that are not really essential and we may take too much time doing necessary tasks.  For example, do you really need to spend 10+ hours at the office?  Do you really need to spend so much time on house/yard work?  Do you really need to be involved in all the activities outside the home that you are involved with?

Someday you will face the Lord and give account of what you have done with your time on earth    (II Corinthians 5:10).  Have you spent sufficient time and effort on what’s really important, what our Lord Jesus Christ considers the better thing?  Are you more like Martha or more like Mary?