Can I talk to the Marthas for a moment?
I know the Marys chide the Marthas, but as a true Martha, I’m not here to yell at you… honest.
I am a Martha. Ya know, the one who was busy being hospitable to her guests, while her sister Mary was sitting listening to the Jesus teach. I’m the one staying up till midnight trying to get the laundry done before company comes on Sunday. When there is a funeral or a person coming home from the hospital, it is imperative that I prepare a meal for them. I am typing up this blog post and I had to close my email app because the email notifications are distracting. My husband says I have two speeds: wide open and asleep.
They say, “Sit at the LORD’s feet,” but HOW do you do that? I mean, I can make praying and reading my bible just two more items on my daily check list. This can become legalistic a burden and something I can berate myself for not accomplishing. I don’t think that fulfills the spirit of the LORD’s teaching.
Get me away from work and home and I can see how it might be possible. Quiet mountain cabin, preferably with no cell signal, that someone else will clean when I leave. My whole day can be filled with quiet meditation and soul searching, but that’s not the reality in day to day life, is it? In reality, I carve out time to be with Jesus and usually that involves stepping away from my to-do list.
MY INNER DRILL SERGEANT
The tyranny of the self is not always the lazy one. Sometimes the tyrant is a drill sergeant. How can I leave the laundry, the dishes, the toilets and truly rest? How can I leave the email, the texts, the work-tickets, the request for a shift swap and allow my soul to be quiet?
We recognize the need for rest, right? We see the exhaustion, the burn-out, the tension, the stress, but when it comes time to sabbath, we catch up on all the things that didn’t get done in the other six days of the week. Raise your hand if you can relate. Don’t look around the room. Those other women are Marys.
How long will my to-do list assault me? Would it throw me down— this leaning wall, this tottering fence? Why do I always feel like I’m on the edge?
Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. Psalm 62
The solution is not to quit my job, leave my family and become a hermit in that quiet mountain cabin. I will still work as hard as I ever had before I rested in the LORD, but when I take sabbath moments, sabbath days, I WILL rest in HIM.
We cannot walk this path, through the good times and bad, without rest. I will tell you, Martha, why it is so HARD to rest.
We feel like if we stop, even for just a moment, that something will catch up with us.
What is that something? Well, it could be our past, it could be sin, it could be a seed of a lie of the enemy was sewn and we fear it taking root. I don’t know why you work yourself to the bone. I don’t know why you always have something playing: the TV, the radio, a podcast… something to fill the void of silence. Something to prevent you from hearing the still, small voice.
What I do know is that often we don’t trust God to protect us in the stillness. In the business of life, we feel in control. We feel we can manage it. We don’t have to trust God because we got this!
TIME TO REST
God is inviting you to rest, dear one. He is telling you and I that he will protect you while you climb the steps to his hiding place.
“You have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.” Psalm 61:3-4
It’s such an effort to get there isn’t it? Clear my calendar, turn off the phone, close the email app, such the door… don’t take your lesson plans or papers to grade home… don’t touch the laundry, ignore the poop on the seat of the toilet, walk right past the dishes in the sink. There is refuge, a quiet place to dwell. We will have to go back and fight the good fight another day, but for this moment, I’m taking refuge from the storm.
“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Psalm 32:7
My dogs understand this concept. When thunder rolls, the want to come inside and be near me. It doesn’t matter if I’m in the recliner, my bed or standing at the sink washing dishes. They come to be as close to me as possible. I comically try to continue loading the dish washer with a border collie at my feet. My dogs know that in times of trouble, nothing else matters but to be near the master. They feel I can protect them.
Some of us try to clean ourselves up or “get it together” before sitting at the LORD’s feet. When our lives are a mess, when we are a mess is the most crucial time to take refuge in him. Turn your brain off and stop trying to figure a way out of the mess. Go to his word and meditate on his goodness.
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Psalm 18:2
WEEKLY BIBLE MEDITATION
- Psalms 61-62
- Psalms 61:3-4 You have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.
- Psalm 62:5 Find rest O my soul
- Psalms 32
- Psalms 32:7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.
- Psalm 18
- Psalm 18:2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
- Psalm 84 – Psalm 84:5, 7 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
- Proverbs 3:1-20
- Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
- Proverbs 3:13,17 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.
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