The Listener and the Worker (#wtsdevo unexpectedways)
She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. - Luke 10:39
I’ll always love the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible because it speaks to us in so many ways and it relates so much to all of us in many proportions. But it is Christ’s reaction and take on the situation that always gets to me.
For some strange reason, our society weighs our worth and value on the work and effort that we put into things. If we are able to be productive, society would slap a fat gold star in our book and cheer us on. But if we are on the other side of that so called “norm”, we would be pushed to the corner and be labelled as useless and probably a dead-weight. I’d like to say that I am being harsh here but it is the reality of the world that we live in today. This is so ingrained in our heads and ethic that anything different would be so strange and probably off-putting to all of us.
By our standards, Martha would be the star of the show. She was hardworking, getting things done and making it all happen. But Christ’s response to her when she tried to get Mary to be the same as her was and is so unexpected in our world that it almost feels like Christ had gone crazy. He chose Mary’s listening over Martha’s hard work and although He appreciated all that Martha was doing, He reserved His praise for Mary saying that she had chosen what was right and good. And this response is a wake up call for all of us.
The world may rate our value and worth based on our performance on things but that’s because the world as a whole really isn’t concerned about the well-being and the depths of our soul and if we were to take up the world on that, we are heading for nothing less than a trainwreck. Things of this world are not permanent and to value ourselves on something that isn’t constant is a dangerous thing. However God is forever the same and all things of Heaven is eternal, never to go away. To find and discover this is not an easy thing in the midst of all the chaos in the world that we live through which is why Christ praised Mary for choosing what was important than going with what the world thought was right.
All of this may seem strange and unsettling when we compare it with what we’ve been used to doing but it is true and something that we’ll need to taken to heart and adopt. Being Christian we are called to seek everything above that of the world and we can start by listening to God’s voice more than over-weighing ourselves with work and work and more work that the world piles on top of us.
That gold star the world gives you will surely fade away and be probably left around forgotten but God’s world is here to stay and it’s up to us to choose what’s worth it all.
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Devotional Series: Unexpected Ways (#wtsdevo unexpectedways)
By: Elle \ Personal // Walk the Same.
