Luke 10: 41: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
I freely admit to being a “Martha”, but I am trying to become more of a “Mary”. Last week, the Lord got my attention and, once again, reminded me that I need to slow down and re-focus.
I am a true multi-tasker and I like to stay busy, but in the past year the pace of my life has accelerated in a ridiculous way. I work as a pharmacist two days a week, do the books for my husband’s office, host a ladies Bible study, function as the director of Women’s Ministries for our church, teach a Sunday school class, serve on the Long Range Planning Committee, and now have formed The Point Ministries which is the speaking and teaching ministry to which the Lord has called me. My dear Mother has been telling me for months that I need to slow down, as has my friend, Joy. Did I listen to them? NOOOOO, I was too busy doing ‘good’ things—just like our friend Martha. The things that Martha and I are doing are good and perhaps, godly things, but we must be aware of when our good things take control of us rather than us controlling them.
On Monday I went by our church to take some materials to Wes, our director of media ministries. In our discussion, which centered on the recent Times of Refreshing Event and the video that he had made for me, Wes looked at me and in a gentle voice said, “My wife and I were talking about you Saturday night. You need to take your own advice.” WHEW!! The Lord just might as well have slapped me full across the face. That really got my attention because what I heard the Lord say to me through Wes was, “We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way, but you are going to slow down!!
Most of my life lessons have been learned the hard way, but I don’t want that to be the case with this one. So, I immediately began praying for the Lord to show me what to let go of in order to be obedient to what He is saying. Some things are not negotiable like my relationship with Christ, my marriage, family and The Point Ministries. The rest is negotiable and I am diligently seeking the Lord’s instruction regarding which activity or activities are to be ceased in order to focus more deeply on the Lord, my marriage and my ministry. In my message to the ladies at Times of Refreshing I said that sometimes we have to say ‘no’ to good things in order to say ‘yes’ to the best things.
The desire of my heart is to be obedient to God and at this time, He is saying, “Slow down, re-focus, and rest more.” So, as I wait for His instruction on what that slowing down is to look like, I ask for His forgiveness for getting so caught up in what Beth Moore calls the “captivity of activity”. I want to please Him by the things that I do and that means doing only what He desires. It takes effort for me to be a “Mary” but with His help, this is one lesson I won’t learn the hard way!! Thank you, Wes, for being faithful to speak God’s word of warning to me.
