Today is Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the reunification of the city in 1967.
Now it came to pass, as they went, that He entered into a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His Word.
But Martha was encumbered with much serving, and came to Him and said, “Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.”
And Jesus answered and said unto her, “Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things.
But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-42
Anxious and troubled about many things.
Now, where have I heard that before?
Oh yeah, Friday’s post. You know that post when I shared the realization that sometimes I just need to slow down and not worry about everything on the to do list.
Martha was just doing what she thought needed to be done.
I imagine that if Bethany was in the south, the days after Lazarus died the house would have been filled with casseroles delivered by the church ladies.
MARTHA: Lord if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.
JESUS: Move the stone.
MARTHA: Surely, Lord, he stinketh. How about some banana pudding instead?
Or sometime like that.
I’m no theologian, but I suspect that Jesus’ admonition wasn’t just to Martha.
Sometimes we all miss the main thing because we’re so busy with the other things.
NARRATOR: He’s preaching to the choir.
Taking this out of the faith context, which should always be the main, main thing, I realize that I am also too
busy with other things.
After all, the person writing this went through three college majors before graduating. No, I did not have three majors. I changed majors three times.
So, I read from my writing friends and think I want to write like that. I want to write like that every day. How do they do it? Well, in part, because that’s their main thing. I’ll never have a writing career like that because there are so many other shiny objects out there.
I have to…or want to…balance the writing with managing the theater, and doing the graphic design, and being Santa.
Not to mention the pesky (but appreciated) day job (for a while longer), and the routine pressures of house and yard and finance and…
Well, you get the idea.
Being a renaissance man is no easy task. And it’s not like I necessarily excel in all of those areas, particularly the pesky ones. But I have some talent in each.
Enough, as I often say about my computer skills, to be dangerous.
In a perfect world, I’d be able to give up some of the things and focus on a particular task or two.
I don’t know about you but I’ve never lived in a perfect world.
So, I’m constantly reassessing and rearranging…many things…so to speak.
Right now I’m in a season of having the main focus need to be my health.
It’s hard to look around my office, which also needs a great deal of attention, and just say…that has to wait.
It’s also hard, or even harder, to realize that sometimes the waiting, and the listening, is the more important thing.
Now about that banana pudding…
Photo by Sander Crombach on Unsplash
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
WHAT I’M READING
RANDOM LINKS YOU SHOULD READ
It’s Official: New White House Cat To Be Named ‘Chairman Meow’
The Babylon Bee
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Move over, Champ and Major! There’s a new pet in the Biden family, and he may be the ticket to smoothing over relations with China. The White House has officially announced the arrival of their new cat “Chairman Meow”. Read More.
KRUTA: I Earned The Name ‘Mother’ — You Won’t Demote Me To ‘Birthing Person’
Virginia Kruta in The Daily Caller
What being inclusive with words does, however, is it begins to marginalize women by taking away one of the few things that is uniquely ours. Read More.
Congressman Introduces Bill Banning Critical Race Theory In U.S. Military Service Academies
The Federalist
Republican Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn, introduced a bill Wednesday that would prohibit critical race theory from being taught at U.S. military service academies. Read More.
PODCASTS I’M LISTENING TO
BENEDICTION
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26