"Talking God's Ears Off"

I did start my MOPS devotional as mentioned earlier with "If you had but one year left to live, how would you live it"? When Monte and me analyzed that question years ago it seems everything came back to relationship. Relationship with family and friends seems most important, and everything that nurtures those relationships - like time, conversation, making memories.

Having a 'white glove' approved house, and organizing my computer files seem unimportant. Wasting time bickering seems unimportant ... watching TV? ... (you add to the list) ... Do we make comments like, "I can't wait till the kids are grown and then I'll really live!"? We tend to live as if we've got all the time in the world.

That nurturing of relationship with family and friends applies as well to my relationship with God. God sought me and romanced me, wooing me to him. We relate in many ways, but sitting with scripture is one way I really strive to do regularly. So in sitting, simply being with him, he often gives me insights.

I read the Mary and Martha story from Luke 10. In that scene we tend to focus on Jesus telling Martha that Mary has chosen the good/better thing in sitting and listening to him and learning. Listening is a good thing. It nurtures relationship.

Do we really listen to our friends and family? our kids? I used to often say, "My kids are talking my ears off" in a half joking way, yet it's also saying, "they're driving me crazy!!!!", "they're bugging me", interrupting my time.

I got to thinking ... I bet God would LOVE me to "talk his ears off"!

In this scripture scene, as I sit with another reading, I see that "Martha welcomed Jesus into her home". In reading the gospels we see that Martha, Mary and their brother Lazarus and Jesus are friends. He often goes to their home. Martha has made her home a hospitable place to be. Jesus feels at home there.

I used to have a book that might have been titled "Less of Martha and More of Mary" which is denigrating Martha. The book's message was actually more of Martha so there can be more of Mary.

I've taken on, chosen the 'job' of homemaker. What if construction workers, architects, surgeons ... haphazardly did their jobs without learning skills and researching the best tools for their jobs. That's how most of us homemakers approach our job - haphazardly. If we learned how to best establish our homes for better utilization, we should have more time to be Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet, playing games with our kids ... 

Does Jesus tell Martha to stop doing what she's doing and sit at his feet too? No. He just reminds her that she's worried/anxious and distracted/troubled in what she's doing. This I think is the main point of this whole scene!

The reality of life is that I DO have to work in the kitchen, have laundry to do, cleaning ... Jesus is asking Martha, to not go about it worried and distracted, but to BE PRESENT TO HIM, to God, in what she's doing.

Time spent in these quotidian activities have the potential of worship! So in wanting to live my days better, as I go about my ordinary dailies, I have the potential with an attitude change, a God-consciousness, to turn the ordinary into EXTRAordinary. I can be fully present, fully alive in each moment, and use the time to "talk God's ears off"!