"Sometimes God Calls Me Martha"

Saturday night my mind was racing with things to do, plans to make and people to contact. As I would toss and turn in bed I would watch the clock...midnight...1 AM...2 AM...Finally, at 4 AM, after thinking of everything I could think of that needed to be thought of I was ready to go to sleep.

I prayed a prayer that I often pray, "Lord, if there is anything I need to see, hear or know, please, I give you permission to make that clear." As soon as I ended that prayer God spoke. In my heart and mind he reminded me of Jesus' conversation with two sisters in Luke 10:38-42. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things," I heard Jesus say to me. Yes, sometimes God calls me Martha.

Like Martha, I am more comfortable being busy than sitting around "relaxing" whatever that means. Like the original Martha, I too want God to kick some people in the seat of the pants and get them busy doing something for Jesus. But, if I am not careful I, like Martha, will exchange a call to action for Christ for becoming "worried and upset about many things." That is what I heard God saying to me on Saturday night.

So, in prayer I began to focus on God calling me Martha. I began to ask him about why I was worried and upset about many things. The more I focused on that the more I seemed to become worried and upset about many more things. Then God reminded me that what Jesus said to Martha did not stop there. Jesus went on to say, "Martha, Martha you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her." Earlier in the text it tells us that Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to him. In other words, Martha, she and me, was upset because instead of our activity bringing us to it was taking us way from sitting at the feet of Jesus.

So, I stopped and sat (actually, I laid). Next thing I knew, I was sound asleep. Jesus was right. What Mary chose was better. May be someday God will have grown me enough in him that if he calls me by a woman's name it won't be Martha.