Have you ever been in such stressful circumstances that you just wanted to run into your room and hide your head under a pillow to wait until everything was over? I guess that every person has experienced such a situation at least once in a lifetime.
Mine was just a few weeks ago. My husband attended a leadership conference for a few days and I was home alone with the kids. This is usually not a problem for me. This time, however, due to not marking my husband’s absence in my calendar, I arranged various appointments for that week. The schedule with the kids is already quite tough on its own; adding other things on top of it can become overwhelming. I managed miraculously to keep most of the appointments, however, was completely exhausted on Friday when the busiest part of the week was yet to come though.
Pastor Mike McDermott, our recent guest speaker, and his wife Becky stayed with us during that weekend, which meant preparing dinner for a whole team. Initially I had planned to attend the church growth seminar run by him on Saturday, however, due to my busy schedule, it was just not possible to realise it. I had been looking forward to this seminar for months and was absolutely frustrated and upset – not least because I couldn’t take part in the seminar, but also because everything was about to get even crazier. On my to-do-list were still things such as the preparations for the Spanish service, making dinner, tidying the house and looking after the kids.
When I was just about to give up and hide myself, a church sister called. She had also been hosting a couple for the weekend, however, had finished her preparations and kindly offered her help. I was overwhelmed and almost fell on my knees to express my thankfulness. Her support helped me “survive” the rest of the evening, but I was admittedly tired when I arrived at church on Sunday morning.
The sermon Pastor Mike chose to speak about that day was on Martha and Mary. Listening to the points he shared, felt at bit like a slap in my face. How was it possible that a passage, which I knew and had read a hundred times suddenly spoke so clearly to me? This passage was a perfect fit to my situation. It helped me realise that I had been so busy being Martha throughout the whole week and consequently missed the blessings of Saturday.
The following days, I reflected on the message over and over again. Then, the following scripture came to my mind: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21-23). I asked myself if it was really possible that God would one day refuse us, despite us having worked hard for Him? Could it be true? Many passages in the Bible tell us that God wants us to work for Him – I had even preached once about it. Why then would He refuse us? After meditating on it and going through further Bible passages more carefully, I understood that God wants us to be obedient. Even if we sacrifice ourselves in working hard for Him, neglecting family, friends in order to “serve” God, it’s not worth anything, if it’s not what God has asked to do. It is a fallacy to think that we can buy His grace by working hard. Ephesians 2:8-10 clearly informs us of the truth: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
It’s important to consider very carefully if what we are doing is in line with God’s plans for us. There are certainly periods were things need to be done. We should, however, stop now and again and take time to pray and ask God if we’re still doing His will or if we’re so distracted doing Martha’s work, that we’re missing Mary’s blessings.
Be blessed, Pastor Giovanna Colaci