The Better Part

04.10.2016

May the force be with you.

HERE is a powerful story – and what a clear lesson about where, how and from whom we draw the force that powers all our life.

And how guilty I am of drawing from the opposite, as Martha.

Mary sat there listening.

The lesson becomes so much more obvious when one contemplates that the story could not have ended in its telling. What happened after, when Mary stood up and went on with life?

How inflamed she must have been, how empty of self and anything else but the fullness of the Lord’s fire and love, that then she could bring forth as the unstoppable force for all the work and service that, who else, but the Lord Himself bid her do.

In contrast – a contrast I understand too well for I am its daily prey – Martha is too busy and anxious and stressed, too full of the busyness of living to see that the one thing that matters is already ours if we would only let go of everything else, sit down and take Him all in.

 

LK 10:38-42

Jesus entered a village
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Tell her to help me.”
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

Andre Yap October 4, 2016