Busyness

Jeff has been preaching this summer on the 10 deadly sins of our congregation...congregation meaning...not singling us out from the greater body of Christ, but actually looking at ourselves and the issues that God has laid on his heart. Its been a bit painful. Mostly because he is dead on with what he is preaching...which is God's Word...which doesn't change.


This week was on the sin of "busyness" and the story of Martha and Mary was the passage. (Luke 10: 38-42)


You all know the story...Mary is the one sitting at Jesus' feet listening and soaking him in while Martha is busy with all the preparations. Martha misses out on all the good stuff because she is concerned with the urgent stuff...or what she perceives as urgent.


I love Martha...mostly cause I totally get her.


Who doesn't love the Martha's of this world because they actually get stuff DONE...they provide. They are the ones packing candy bars in their purses in case of getting stuck in the mountains by an avalanche. They are the ones who make sure there is a first aid kit on hand in case of emergency. They are the ones that have extra sheets washed in case guests pop in. I would soooo have been the one rushing around making everything just so and irritated beyond measure that my sister was the one just doing nothing. (I actually poked E during the sermon at this point and said, "It sounds like our marriage"..I'm always trying to git 'er dun and he's living in the moment. While I say that jokingly, I actually have been jealous of him at times because of his ability to live in the moment. Im getting better at it, its still not my natural tendency.)


Some great thoughts from the sermon:

• The Japanese ( i think it was Japanese) symbols for busyness actually translate as "death of the heart"


• That busyness distracts us from what is important and WHO is important and it drives us away from Jesus' feet.


• Mary didn't care what people said about her or if she appeared lazy...Martha did the opposite and obviously cared about how things "looked" or else she would not have complained about it to Jesus. This one particularly hit home with me. That concept of not being worried about how you come off to others...


• Jesus is our worth, not what we do.


• Jesus doesn't want our work or activity, he wants our hearts.
  

What i was also thinking about is how busyness is different than being prepared. (Doesn't the boy scout creedo...ah hem...MOTTO say something about preparedness?) Being prepared is not a bad thing unless it gets in the way of what is bigger and more important... namely worshipping

Hmmmm...I have to roll this around a bit in my head. (I welcome thoughts and comments on this.) That said, Id better get my Hershey bar out of my purse before it melts...it might get the first aid kit all gooey.