So on Sunday at Redwood we looked at the encounter that a couple of gals named Mary and Martha had with Jesus, while He and his disciples were guests in their home. In the face of a visit from such a notable guest one threw herself busily into the ministry of hospitality, and the other threw herself into a different expression of a similar love.
As the story goes, Martha learns the hard way that her busyness didn’t translate in the way she had hoped.
In Isaiah 55:2 God asks a penetrating and seemingly rhetorical question to those of us who have ever found ourselves spending our resources amiss.
“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”
I think all of us are confronted, from time to time, with the reality that we’ve been spending ourselves for a cause or reward that simply will not satisfy. …or at least not in the way that we hoped.
And I think all of us know what it feels like to be spent. And have very little to taste for it.
My wife finished her last paper of the year late last night and her last class before exams this morning. She’s been working hard. So at about 8:30 this evening I asked her if she wanted to go for a quick latte at Starbucks. She agreed and I went downstairs to tell Abigail that mommy and daddy were going out for a quick date. I had no sooner finished speaking when Abigail burst into tears. It took her a while to put words to what her face was saying.
“It’s just that Mom is always doing school work, and you are always working. Either it’s just Mom looking after Shiloh Esther and me or it’s you looking after Shiloh, Esther and me and its never all of us together as a family.”
Not sure I know how to answer that.
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