Sit & Listen about the one-eyed hamster

Who's got time for that?

So many things call.  So many good things, so many helpful things that I could do.  See something that needs to be done and do it.   But they call me away, away from the best.  If the enemy can’t make us miss the mark with sin, then he would love to make us miss the mark by making us so busy doing  good things that we miss the best thing.

Don’t be so busy serving me that you miss my presence

Oh, by nature I’m totally a Martha.  But in all my Marthaness, no matter how hard I try, things still get missed and some ball is still dropped.  At the end of my most productive, task filled day, there’s still more to do. That's so frustrating for a Martha.  Every day, there’s more tasks than I could dare accomplish.  One of the biggest challenges about being such a Martha is that we can be so busy serving that we forget to slow down & love on the ones we are serving. Jesus was all in her house and the Bible said she was distracted with much serving.  Can you imagine what you’d do if Jesus was in your house?  I mean, I can totally picture myself like all spiritual, sitting on the floor looking at Jesus, washing his feet with my tears, as my children float by in moments of bliss.  But in reality, It would be wild, loud, kids running, dogs barking and messing on the carpet & I’d be running around cleaning  up & serving up the fanciest food I could muster up (Cocoa Krispies or Frosted Flakes, with some Ghirardelli chocolates on the side).   Seriously, I’d be so tempted work my heart out to serve him and everyone else, that I would miss him just being there. I’m the one who would be thinking about all I could do to make his stay nice.  But what a trick of the enemy.   In the busyness of serving, if we are not careful, we can neglect the very ones we serve.  

Sometimes, it’s in the slowing down that we serve others best.  People often don’t want our service as much as they just want us.  Your attention, your care, your ear, your joy.  Ahhhh....slowing down enough to listen, to laugh, to enjoy those we serve.  That’s what Jesus wanted of Martha. I can hear him saying, “Don’t be so busy serving me that you miss my presence.”

Your value is not in what you do, but in whose you are

Another issue Martha likely faced was in finding her value in what she did.  I know, because that’s how I lived for years.  What a lie the enemy plants that we are only as valuable as what we accomplish. The lie that if we are not doing something for someone at all times, we are not valuable.  The truth is, we are valuable because we are His.  On our best day, it’s the blood of Jesus that makes us valuable, and on our worst day, it’s still the blood of Jesus that determines our value.  You are valuable because He gave his life for you.

I choose that needful thing

My relationship with my children grows the most when I slow down and sit on the floor with my kids one on one and listen; listen about something that they made in art, or listen and care why a certain sock must be found because it fits just right and doesn't have bumps like all the rest, or listen compassionately again about the one-eyed hamster that's been deceased for two years now.  It's those moments that mean so much to my kids, but are so hard for me, because I'm not doing something.  Even if I never find the sock, or don't replace the one-eyed hamster, it matters most to them that they had all my attention and that I genuinely cared.  It’s when we slow down and listen that we build relationships.  We are not here to merely serve, but to know and be known, to love and be loved, to listen and be heard.  Sometimes, that requires that our eyes be taken off our “service” and put on that one that we’re serving.  Similarly, when I sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary, and He has all my attention, our relationship grows.  When my attention is all on him, I can hear his heart.  “Lord, what would you have to tell me.  This is the most needful thing I can accomplish today.  To sit at your feet and learn of you.  Your yoke is easy and your burden is light.  Speak to me, Lord.  So many things call for my attention and energy, but you are the needful thing.  I choose you.  Show me what I am to do today in this season.  Show me what is merely a distraction from your purpose for me today.  Show me what is keeping me from the best you’ve called me to.  Let all the duties and tasks call, but they will just have to wait.  I choose you, Lord.  You are my needful thing.”   

Friend, my prayer for us today is that no good thing will pull us away from the very best thing.  May we choose to make time to sit with those we love and listen wholeheartedly, if only for a moment.  May our most needful thing be sitting at the feet of Jesus each day.  Such wholeness awaits us there at his feet.

Love, Chrissy