Martha Martha!

 

I was reflecting on the popular scripture passage about Mary and Martha recently and I want to share a few thoughts with you about it.

If you don’t know the account, you can find it in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 11, beginning at verse 38.  In a nutshell, Jesus visited the home of two sisters—Martha and Mary—and Martha complained to Jesus because she was “burdened with much serving” and her sister Mary was sitting beside Jesus at his feet, listening to him.  This didn’t sit too well with Martha, so she said to Jesus:

“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?  Tell her to help me.”

Is there one person reading this right now that can’t relate to Martha?  Whether it is at Thanksgiving, or an ordinary day of cooking and cleaning, at some point, most of us look an awful lot like Martha.  We look around us at what others are doing and wonder why we are stuck doing everything (even though that may not even be true!)

Unfortunately for Martha, she did not get a sympathetic hearing when she complained to Jesus.  Instead, Jesus told her that her sister Mary—who was sitting and listening to him—had made the better choice!

Here’s how Jesus put it: “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.”

Forever, this passage has been used as the source of debate when considering which is better—working or contemplation.  While both are necessary and need to be held in balance, if we set out to do the work that God has given us to do without first listening at his feet, our work will be diminished because it will be based on our ideas rather than God’s will.

This is no small thing.

See if this sounds like you.  You start a project at work, or take up something that needs to be done at home.  You start planning it and you have an end goal in mind.  Your vision of the end result motivates you to push forward.  Then, disappointment sets in when it doesn’t play out as you had planned.

Sound familiar?

Here’s the problem: The bar that measures success is not ours to set.

For example . . . you planned really hard for a parish retreat and two people showed up.  You worked hard on a special meal, and it was not appreciated.  You prepared a presentation and your target audience was uninspired and the best thing about it was the doughnuts your secretary brought.

When our idea of success doesn’t look like we think it should, it can paralyze us.

But it doesn’t have to, if we keep one thing in mind:  the true measure of success isn’t the outcome.  The true measure of success comes from following what we have learned at the feet of Jesus.  If you have really been listening to Jesus and follow-up your time with him by doing what you are called to do, that’s success.

Maybe those two people really needed that retreat time.  Maybe your nice meal fed somebody who needed it but wasn’t in a place to express gratitude.  Maybe your audience looked uninspired but they were really intently listening!

Don’t let discouragement stop you from moving forward.  The apostles who gathered in the upper room after the crucifixion certainly didn’t.  Jesus didn’t when he faced his agony in the garden. 

May our names be added to the list of those who kept moving, even in our darkest hour.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com