Luke 10: 38-42 gives the account of Jesus stopping at Martha and Mary’s home.  Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet listening.  Meanwhile Martha is distracted in her serving.  It is not the serving which is a problem, but being distracted.  Indeed the text tells us she is not only distracted, but she is distracted by much serving.  Jesus tells her she is anxious and troubled about many things.  Much.  Many.  Busy, busy, busy.  Go, go, go.  Lots to do.   Distracted.

How easily we allow our lives to be filled up with busyness, much, many.  Our lives become frantic, hectic, crazy.  We become impatient, cranky, irritable.  Like Martha we get upset when we see someone just sitting.  All this busyness hurts our relationship with God.  It hurts our relationship with people.  We don’t have time for either.  We are distracted.

I can get so distracted by service, by ministry, that I can fail to sit at the feet of Jesus and just listen.  What about you?  What distractes you so much that you fail to sit at the feet of Jesus and just listen?  Maybe it is ministry.  Maybe it is work.  Maybe it is family activities.  Maybe it is a hobby.  What distracts you from Jesus?

It struck me this summer that I am addicted to doing.  I can’t stop.  Even when I sit down to relax, I have to be doing something.  Maybe you can relate.  You can’t relax.  You feel guilty when you stop.  So you just keep going, doing, accomplishing.  You, like me, are distracted.

In all this busyness and distraction, Jesus says there is only one thing necessary.  Some manuscripts say few things are necessary.  Either way, one or few is a long way from much and many.  We will look at that one thing (that is over even a few things) in the next post.  But for now, consider if you are caught up in busyness, if you are so distracted that you fail to sit at the feet of Jesus and just listen.  Maybe like me you need to learn when to stop, how to say no, how to slow down.  Maybe you need to shed some non-essentials from your life.  We don’t have to live our lives distracted.