To all of the faithful and hard working mothers reading this post let me extend a warm and sincere “Happy Mother’s Day”. I hope that your children and other loved ones have amply expressed to you their abundant appreciation and gratitude…perhaps with brunch or a lie-in?
For those readers who are hopeful of having children, I remind you of God’s promise to make you the “joyful mother of children”, and pray that you will see your heart’s desire.
Narrow Your Focus
It’s been a little over a year since public health restrictions designed to limit COVID-19 transmission forced us to rethink how we shop, travel, and stay connected. For some who lost a parent, friend, or significant other, the past year has been both confusing and excruciating. For those who have been more fortunate, many of us were still at home with the walls closing in, often alone or isolated, with only ourselves or close family members as company.
I think it’s inevitable in circumstances like these for our focus to become more narrow with each passing day. Although we long for ‘normal’ human contact, keeping up with work while getting our kids through school lessons and chores imposes restrictions that make it difficult to see more than a few feet ahead.
Normally, on PROJECT2031, we would be encouraging Christian women to lift up their heads and look beyond themselves and their families to see mission fields which are “white unto harvest”. But instead I’d actually like us to consider whether we should narrow our focus even more.
Perhaps Jesus was kidding?
In Luke 10, we see Jesus visiting his friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It’s implied in the Luke text and a later story in Matthew in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, that the four of them shared an intimate relationship which was both comfortable and mutual. On this occasion, we encounter Martha as she proclaims her exasperation with her sister for sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening, while she was left to shoulder the burden of providing care. We don’t know exactly what Martha was doing, perhaps she was making lunch or doing laundry. We only know that she was irritated that she had to do it alone, and thought that Mary, who was ‘only’ sitting at the feet of Christ, was out of place.
In verse 41, Jesus replies patiently but firmly to her demand that Mary be sent to help her, “Martha, you are worried and careful about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:41-42)
I’ve always read these two verses as a passage of liberation. But one thing? Only one?
What’s the Point?
I think we can all appreciate that life can be or seem to be an almost endless division and redivision of labor into the things I’ve done, the things I think I need to do, those I’d like to do, and superseding all of that are the things others want and need me to do.
We have lists, and lists of lists. And within those lists, the monotony of activity compels us forward.
We’ve talked many times on this platform about how the fulfilled expectations of others can be the enemy of God’s best for our lives. We’ve written about how like Martha, busyness without purpose can consume us. How for women in particular, we frequently find ourselves living up to, or down to, the expectations and needs of others. Especially today, as I think, we’ve redefined motherhood as this ‘always on’, externally-focused “angel in the corner” earning her salvation through childbirth as Paul spoke about in I Timothy 2.
And yet indirectly and directly, throughout Scripture and in the life of Christ, we’re reminded that truly, “only one thing is needed”.
At risk of being accused of heresy, I don’t want to turn this into a devotional on the importance of prayer and study. Yes, those are important, but honestly, they’re not important as ends in themselves. Sitting at the feet of Christ and being attuned to the Holy Spirit matters only to the extent that we take what we hear and use it to find and walk in the purpose of God for our lives.
Many of us have families. And with family comes responsibility.
But we must be cautious that our responsibilities do not make us “worried and careful about many things”. That our lists do not consume our capacity to follow the will of God for our lives. Which as we can see in Martha’s exasperation, may not come with the fulfilled expectations of others.
Stand With Confidence
In the New Testament, the first chapter of Revelation tells us that there is a special blessing on those read the words of that book. If you’ve ever tackled Revelation (and you should), you know that the entire book is about Christ’s return…a topic about which we do not speak nearly enough in today’s churches. But there is no better impetus for finding and pursuing God’s plan for our lives than the knowledge that we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give account, both the things that we’ve done and those we’ve left undone.
So, what if we come to the end, having spent our lives being “worried and careful about many things?” Focused on fulfilling the expectations of others? Doing the things we could have left undone? What if we’ve never done the one thing we were placed here to do?
Do we want to stand before Christ with confidence and say, “I have run my race”. Or will we find ourselves like Cain, bringing to God the fruit of labor that we were already doing…hoping that will be sufficient?
If you have that niggling feeling in the pit of your stomach when you read the question, I challenge you to ask. God has promised that He to be found when we seek Him with our whole heart.
I know which one I’m striving towards in my own life. I challenge you to do the same.
