Fully Present

"How true it is that unless we are involved with Jesus Christ in a loving and adoring relationship, we have nothing of eternal value to offer to a needy world . . . our worship of God must take priority over our work for God . . . In the atmosphere of worship we see more clearly what we should do and our work becomes a daily joy instead of a daily grind." (Light For The Path by Selwyn Hughes p. 359)

Hughes' devotion and Luke 10:42 took me back to the Mary-Martha challenge. Who am I?

In my journal, I claimed to have more Mary tendencies, more of a tendency to sit at Jesus feet. "Right! And the whole time you are sitting there, you are worrying about whether you're displeasing God and/or people by not "doing."

"Excuse me. Who's there? Who's speaking? God is that You?"

The picture is absolutely accurate. I love my morning quiet times, my times in the Scripture and learning from God. I enjoy times spent studying for and writing articles. But I also worry (lots) about what people think. My dad equated sitting with laziness. And understandably so; he grew up on a farm.

So, the Scriptures and I talked back and forth for a while.

"God, what are you trying to teach me?

"I know that I can't leave all the work to others.

"However, Scripture doesn't say that Mary never helped out. Martha doesn't even say that."

A couple of things come to mind: an anecdote where a young boy says, "I may be sitting down on the outside, but I'm standing up on the inside!" Trying to be Mary and Martha at the same time doesn't work.

And then there's the man James talks about who is double-minded and unstable in all his ways. Ouch! Don't much care for that. But doesn't that, too, describe me?

My pastor teaches us that, when with people, we need to be fully present. We need to listen, to give that person our attention, rather than thinking about what we want to say or thinking about the next task on our list. Perhaps, that's what God is asking of me. "When you're with Me, I'd like you to be fully present."

I believe Mary was fully present. And that, Jesus said, He would not take away from her.

I'm excited with Hughes' thoughts: that in my worship I will discover what God would have me to do and I will receive joy (the right heart) to do it.

I've much more to learn, and I'm excited to see where God will take me with this. Please, share your thoughts. When you're with God, are you fully present? Isn't it cool that when God's with us -- no matter when, no matter where -- HE IS FULLY PRESENT.

EverGrowing,
Lonnie