Have you ever thought, “I just need more time.” OR “I just can’t keep up. I feeling like I’m drowning.” Or my personal favorite, “Calgon! Take me away!” (I found this cartoon when I was looking for images of Calgon…and it was too funny not to use. Ever feel like this?)
Busy comes in all shapes and sizes and for various reasons. It can be because of a busy season, like Christmas! Or maybe it’s because we’re planning a special event. Busy can be because we have more kids than hands and they keep us busy from sun up to sun down. People tell me all the time that I’m really going to miss this season of life…going from work to football game to soccer game to music lesson to cooking dinner to……(I believe them….kinda….)
One reason for busy that’s not so healthy is when we’re busy because we have to be. I don’t mean have to because someone is making us. I mean have to because if we aren’t busy doing something, we feel we have no value. We find our identity and self-worth in what we do. This isn’t good, but I think at one time or another, we’ve all found ourselves here. I know I have.
As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
I know these verses can be overused when we talk about being busy, but I can’t help it. I have to go there 🙂
I sometimes picture Martha being like me. When we used to have company over, I would really work myself up into a frenzy trying to make everything perfect. I saw dust in every corner and things that needed cleaned that no normal person would ever see when they walked into my house. I put so much pressure on myself to have everything perfect that I would almost kill myself getting ready for company. Why? I found part of my value in how clean my house was, and I felt “less than” if everything wasn’t perfect. Can anyone relate?
Sometimes I see that in Martha here. She’s the one who invited Jesus and his gang to the house. I think she wanted to be sitting at Jesus’ feet too, but she was so tied to everything being perfect that she just couldn’t leave the kitchen. I think she probably placed so much of her personal value on making it perfect for Jesus that she had no time to enjoy Jesus…..no time to rest.
We saw in Are you feeding tired? how important it is to rest. When we find our value in what we do, it’s so very hard to sit and rest. We always feel we need to be doing something to be of value. We think we need to be doing something to matter, so if we sit and rest, we have no value at all.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened,and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)
God said this about Jesus before He ever lifted a finger in ministry. He said this before Jesus ever turned water into wine, healed the blind man, forgave the woman caught in the act of adultery, raised Lazarus from the dead, or even died on the cross. God was pleased with Him just because He was His Son.
And we have value just because we are His child. It’s time to change the mindset that we only have value if we’re doing something. It’s just not true! We have value because we belong to the One who created us and calls us by His name. We need to think about that and rest in that and let that saturate our minds until it becomes our mindset.
When we realize we don’t have to be busy to have value, it will be so much easier to allow ourselves to rest. So, take a deep breath, say I am valuable just because I am, and rest.
He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
He renews my strength. (Psalm 23:2)