Few Things Are Needed

             Bang!! I woke up and just totally smashed my head on my side table. So it began...the cycle of negativity and to-do lists. I awakened way past schedule, my hair looked like a small family of some kind of vermin resided within it and I disparaged over how to tame it and HOLY HELEN I hand't even laid out my clothes. As I scrambled to get everything together and check off my list in my planner, I totally forgot the most important conversation I could have this morning: prayer. I totally forgot about Jesus. I was so caught up in my moment of madness- covering dark circles, anxious self-talk, fighting my hair- that I forgot the one Person that holds me together and gives me my purpose.

       In class, like any good student with a laptop, I checked my e-mail. Lo and behold, my daily Scripture passage from good old Lifeway was Luke 10:38-42. In this passage of Scripture, Jesus and Martha (of the Mary, Martha, Lazerus trio) was just getting exasperated and frustrated and despairing over the fact that she had a million and one things to do on her to-do list, thirteen extra men to feed and the Son of God in her living room but yet NO ONE was helping her, and there her sister Mary sat, just chillin' at the feet of Jesus. Oh, she was livid! So naturally she had to tell Jesus all about it (aren't we just so good at complaining to Jesus when we are having a fit?). This was sweet Jesus's response:

42 Martha, Martha, You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needful-or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.

    FEW THINGS ARE NEEDED. You don't have to look perfect or micromanage or perform your full schedule. The excess often muddles our minds and keeps us from seeing the point: resting at the feet of Jesus. My emotions, productivity, relationships induce worry and anxiety in me because i forget to rest with Jesus. I forget to listen, to just BE with him. In a modern picture, Mary would have been sitting on the couch with Jesus just listening to him, conversing with him BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP and Martha would've been the traditional Southern woman in the kitchen with the crockpot going, a pie in the oven, a pinterest craft on the table, tea boiling on the stove, an iPhone in her hand and laptop on the counter going, going, going.
 
    I am a traditional giver, doer, provider like Martha. I'm so caught up in what I'm doing that I forget that action is nothing without relationship. Sometimes I find myself SO exasperated at Jesus because I am SO busy and I feel like He doesn't see and that He should automatically be close to me. But how can a person fulfill another, teach another, be close to another, if the object of their affection refuses to just calm the heck down, be still, and rest!? How cool is it that out of all the demands most of our relationships place on us, that Jesus just wants us to sit with him and just be. Yes, He wants us to be service minded and action oriented, but our hustle is worthless if we haven't taken the time to get acquainted with our Purpose.

   This just slapped me in the face today, and I guess we all need to be smacked around by the Lord occasionally. Let's remind each other to rest in Christ's presence and let the busyness just lie where it falls. Productivity is not productive when the relationship is left idle.

Much Happiness!