It’s been a while since I was here.  If you are following my blog page, you have a small clue as to why.  As is the life of any United Methodist pastor, I have moved to a new appointment nearly 500 miles away from my last one.  I had to separate my blog from my former church’s webpage and have another webpage created for me. (Thank you to Steven, Bethany and all the fine folks at YourWebPro, LLC in Lubbock, TX!!! Yes this is a shameless plug for them.  Check them out for all your web page needs!)  In addition to that I had to take some time off from the “extras” of life to care for my husband as he went through some medical chanllenges.  He is now on the mend, and we hope he will be released from all medical follow-ups next month.  Praise God for God’s healing mercies.

The time away from my blog has seen other life things as well.  Our planned trip to the Holy Land was waylaid by Covid.  AGAIN!  Our wonderful son, who is serving our country in the U.S. Navy was sent to Japan for a three year stent.  We had to pack up our home and unpack in a beautiful, but much smaller new one.  (We are still trying to figure out where to put everything.  We need to get stuff on the walls, but we are settling in.)  I am having to learn the long-standing practices and traditions of a different church, one which has been around for well over 100 years and trying to figure out what I can change to better fit my leadership style.  Along with that, I am having to learn names and faces for this new-to-me congregation and figure out where I can fit into my new community outside my role as pastor to this wonderful church.  Again, all this is standard operating procedure for a United Methodist pastor.  But because of all of that it has been a while since I was on this page.  Yet, it has been a busy and productive while.

As I look back on the things I have listed here and think about all the others that are not, I am also drawn to thinking of a couple of verses of Scripture.  The first is from the Gospel of Luke.  In chapter 10, verses 38-41 is the familiar story of Mary and Martha as they play host to Jesus and his disciples.  If you are familiar with the story, you know that Martha was in the kitchen, mumbling under her breath about her sister’s lack of help all while tossing dishes into the sink with a little more gusto than necessary.  Ok, so that is just a little bit of my self-imposistion into the story.  However, Martha was taking care of all those little things that were important if her guests were to be staying in her home.  And she was a little peeved with her sister since Mary was in another part of the house listening to Jesus.  And she did complain to Jesus about her.  To which the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”  

So, how does this fit my last six or so months?  Well, it was all necessary stuff that I was doing, just like it was all necessary stuff that Martha was doing.  None of it could have gone undone.  It’s just that Martha let it get in the way with her time with Jesus.  She could have been sitting at His feet like Mary was, listening to Him, conversing with Him, just being with Him.  She could have made the bed when Jesus took time to do his evening constitutional or pray, but she chose not to.  Martha made her priority the things instead of the One.  My hope every day is that I am different than Martha, although I do recognize a lot of Martha’s tendencies (the ones that we read into the story) in myself.  I want make sure that everything is just so.  How many of you are like that?  How many of you are so exhausted from cleaning the house from top to bottom and cooking all the favorite meals before your guest arrives, or just after as the case may be, that you are tired and grumpy or otherwise occupied when they finally do arrive?  I just hope that I took the time to put Jesus first.  First before the packing and unpacking duties.  First before being a nurse’s aid.  First before coming into a new church.  First, even, before this blog.  Yet, I know that I am not always successful with this.  If we are honest with ourselves, there are very few of us that always put Jesus first.  It is so easy to just go along doing our thing without first stopping to pray and give thanks to the One who gives us everything.

That brings me to the second Scripture passage that came to mind during this time of reflection.  Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  I am pretty sure that Jesus recognized the Martha traits in all of us.  Either that or Martha and the crowds in the cities He was preaching and teaching in are some sort of set apart anomaly :-).  But seriously,  Jesus knows that we were created to need God and to need rest, but that we sometimes (oftentimes?!) get so caught up in life and the “things that have to be done” that we forget to put Jesus first.  When we do that, we wear ourselves out physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually.

I am worn out in so many ways from all the stuff that I have had going on lately.  So, today at least, I am going to put Jesus first.  I am going to pray.  I am going to spend some time in God’s Word.  I am going to seek Him out for some sweet, sweet, rest.  Today, I am going to spent time with my guest.  Mopping the floors can wait.  It will need to be done worse after the company leaves than it does right now anyway.  Tomorrow will be a different day.  But tomorrow, I will try to be different from Martha again.  As will I try every day.  And I know that it will be good because when I put Jesus first, I am learning and growing and getting rest and being refreshed; and when I don’t put Him first, Jesus is still loving and merciful and forgiving.

So, why don’t you join me?  Why don’t you make the decision to put Jesus first today?  Why don’t we make the committment to choose the better part tomorrow?  After all, the chores can wait.  Jesus shouldn’t have to.

And other than this, this pastor has nothing to say today!  Amen and Amen.