The Good Things and the God Things: Part 2

Let me tell you about these two sisters, Mary and Martha. They kind of remind me of myself and my own sister. I can sometimes be a little high strung while my sister can be whatever the opposite of high strung is...low strung, maybe? Anyway, one day Jesus came in to town, and Martha opened up her home to Him. Now, when Jesus comes to someone's house, I imagine it plays out like one of those house parties where it starts out with a few people invited, and then one person invites another person, and suddenly the party is out of control. It is definitely not a small ordeal when Jesus comes to your house. It is a lot of work, and poor Martha, she was working her butt off trying to cook and keep the chaos at a minimum, and her sister, Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus in the living room. Martha was looking for her, and she finally found her. Check out what happens next.

"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 few things are needed--or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:40-42, NIV).

See, Martha was doing good things. She was a do-it-kinda-gal; she was making it happen, but she was missing out on the best thing-- hearing what God had to say to her. What Mary was doing was slightly crazy and was verging on rude. It was not the norm. You see, back in the day, women stayed in the kitchen and out of the living room. That was a dude's area. It was like their man cave, and it was considered scandalous for a woman to enter the man cave. Then, to top it all off, she sat at Jesus's feet like one of his followers would do, and back then, his followers were men. So, Mary looked cray-mc-cray, and probably pretty rude as well, but do you know what Jesus said? He said, "She has chosen right." In fact, he even gave Martha the double Martha because she was complaining about it!

You see, Jesus did miracles all of the time, and whatever Martha was dealing with, Jesus could have handled just by snapping his fingers. It was like Martha was trying to make a pizza for all of them, and Jesus was trying to tell her, "I'm Domino's." What Martha was doing was good, but it was temporary, and God could have taken care of it; what Mary was doing, listening to what Jesus had to say to her, that would last forever.

So, how do we do it? How do we go from doing the good things to the God things? Well, I will tell you what--we have to start sitting at Jesus's feet. We have to get alone with God. That may mean that, like Mary, we need to do something un-ordinary. We might look a little crazy. It may mean skipping some Netflix; it may mean not taking on that extra project at work; it may mean playing a little less basketball, or for me, it may mean skateboarding a little less. These are not bad things in and of themselves, but are they lasting? Are they the best things?

Take a little time each day and pull out your Bible. If you do not have a Bible, get a Bible app on your phone. Start reading. Find out about Jesus. Get to know Him. Like Shia LeBouff would say, "Just do it!" It will change your life.