Quick self-check...are you a thinker or a doer? Are you the one turning all the gears or the one contemplating how all the gears work? All of us are capable of being both a thinker AND a doer, but one is normally more prominent in us than the other. Me personally, I am more of a thinker than a doer. I find it hard to make a plan and execute it, but I like to think deeply and have long, meaningful conversations. I know other women who are the "get stuff done" type and I admire them for their ability to do just that! Both qualities are equally important, and we all have our own blend of the two. The body needs both the members and the mind to carry out its functions.
Looking at the story of Mary and Martha in the Gospel of Luke, we could say that Mary is the thinker, and Martha is the doer. Martha invites Jesus into her home and works to prepare a meal for her guests. As Jesus is teaching, where do we find Mary? We find her at the feet of the Messiah, taking it all in. This upsets Martha, who is now doing all the work on her own, and she demands that Jesus tell Mary to help her. His reply...
"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."
Luke 10:41 ESV
Here we see that Jesus is commending Mary for taking the opportunity to spend time learning from Him. He does not rebuke Martha for her work, although He does bring to her attention that she is worried about many things. He simply says that Mary had chosen the better thing at that time. In that moment, Mary put aside the tasks at hand in order to simply be with Jesus.
As followers of Christ, it is our mission to spend time at the feet of Jesus AND serve one another. We are to be both a Mary and a Martha. Serving is important, but more important is the sitting at His feet. During the time Mary and Martha were living, sitting at the feet of a teacher meant you were or wanted to be his student. It was a place of submission where you yielded your lack of knowledge to the wisdom of the teacher.
As believers, we are to make the decision every day to choose Christ as our portion. Choose Him and His ways over the ways of this world. Read your Bible, God's Holy Word. Invest with reckless abandon in prayer! Spend time worshipping the Father with other believers. Use your spiritual gifts to serve your brothers and sisters in Christ. Choose to listen to music that glorifies God rather than music that glorifies the self and the world. Make the decision to put others and their needs above your own, just as Christ did for us.
To sit at His feet means to be in a posture of surrender, exchanging our wants and desires for our life for Him. With Jesus, we have all that we need. He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life, and we can rest in His goodness. He IS the good portion.
"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Psalm 73:26
Stay humble, stay hungry, and keep choosing the good portion!
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