Not every Monday night but a lot of Monday nights, we have family dinner at my Mom and Dad’s house. As much as I love my family, I used to pretty much always be the first person to leave, and if I had a Sunday School order I really needed to finish printing or if the menu did not appeal to me, I skipped out. I will admit to being a workaholic who generally stays a little stressed by the never-ending to-do list. And, I’m also an introvert, and the dinners being on Monday nights just killed me. Mondays are usually the busiest day of the work week. By the end of the day, I was peopled out, and I just wanted to be home at my quiet house.
Then, the niece and nephew came along, and suddenly, I’m almost always the last person to leave, and I skip only if I’m contagious. I no longer care that the dinners are still on Monday nights, and Mondays are still hectic at work. I don’t care about dirty dishes in my sink that need washed or a million other household chores that need done. I don’t worry about the marker board in the office filled with an impossible list of For the Journey tasks to try to complete during the week or about getting to bed at a decent hour.
Why? Because I just want to soak up every moment with my niece and nephew. Because I know they won’t want me to pull them in the wagon or chase them or swing them around after supper for very long. Because their hugs are pure joy. Because I love hearing their laughter and squeals and the new words they’re learning. Because they are constant reminders of God’s goodness and of answered prayers. Because I honestly did not know I had the capacity to feel such warm and fuzzy emotions until they came along. And probably for about a million other reasons.
I thought of all that tonight as I finished up a lesson from the latter half of Luke 10. At the very end of the chapter, Martha welcomed Jesus into her house, but then she worked herself up into a tizzy with preparing food and washing dishes and making sure everyone had a warm place to sleep and everything that went into serving houseguests. Meanwhile, Mary, her sister, was being no help. She was just sitting at Jesus’ feet. That crawled all over Martha, so she decided it was a good idea to go tell Jesus what to do. And, she did. She told Him to tell Mary to help her… He did not. Instead, He said, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42). Martha was worried about everything, and Mary wasn’t worried about anything. She was simply enjoying Jesus’ presence and soaking in every word He said.
Our Lord wants us to be like Mary, not Martha. He wants us to treat time in His presence like I treat Monday night family dinners now, not the way I used to treat them. He doesn’t want hurried prayers and a five-minute morning devotional from us. He doesn’t want us sitting in morning worship on Sunday totally distracted and fretting over our insanely busy schedule for the week ahead. He doesn’t want us spending time with Him only if there’s not something we’ve wrongfully decided is more pressing. He wants us to enjoy His presence, to have a genuine desire to spend time sitting at His feet. Not worried. Not stressed. Just spending time with Him because we truly want to. Because we love hearing Him speak to us from His Word. Because we enjoy the peace and joy that comes from being in His presence. Because we know that time is never wasted. Because He left heaven for us. Because He faced temptation and persecution and betrayal for us. Because He endured the cross for us. Because we love Him with all our being. And for at least a billion other reasons.
For the Journey Literature 