God's List

Luke 10:38-42

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching
• was distracted with much serving
• one thing is necessary
• chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her

Applying the Word to My Life:
There are some times in my life that are just so much busier than others. The middle of summer is one where I feel like I'm being pulled in a dozen different directions at once. There is always work to do, the school year routines aren't there, we have camps, vacations, the fundraiser and everything else these months pile on. Some days it's hard to find even five minutes, let alone the kind of quiet, unhurried time I think of when I think of prayer.

Then I turn to today's reading, and Jesus has something to say straight into that. Martha welcomes Him into her home, and almost immediately she's pulled into everything hosting Him actually requires — the food, the space, the dozen details that come with having a guest like this one. Mary sits at His feet instead, just listening. When Martha finally says something — Lord, don't you care that she's left me to do this alone? — Jesus doesn't tell her to stop serving. He tells her she's anxious and troubled about many things, and that only one thing is necessary, the thing Mary has already chosen.

When I used to read this passage, I would file it under something to remember for when my life died down — times when it was possible to think about stillness. Things like Eucharistic adoration, prayers before bed, whatever slot we've actually carved out where the only thing happening is being with God. Those times are good, and that presence is real. But we still have to do things. Somebody has to run the fundraiser, meet the deadline, get everyone out the door in the morning. If the one necessary thing only counts when we're sitting still, most of most days get quietly excluded from it, and prayer becomes one more task competing for the same short list of open slots.

But that's not actually the distinction Jesus draws. He doesn't name Martha's serving as the problem — that was needed, and good. What He names is her state while she's doing it: anxious, troubled, pulled in different directions. Mary hadn't found a better task to do instead of Martha's. She'd stayed present to Him in a way Martha, in that moment, hadn't.

I finally saw that distinction a couple of years ago, and it's shaped the way I approach these busy seasons in my life. Now I think of it as prayer in motion: keeping the conversation with God running underneath whatever actually has to get done, instead of waiting on a stillness that isn't coming today and probably isn't coming this week.

Some mornings that looks like praying the rosary while I get ready, because sitting and meditating with it isn't going to happen before the day takes over. When I'm working on the fireworks show, it looks like keeping the people the money is actually for in mind while my hands are busy with the work — not stopping the work to pray over it, but letting the reason for the work become the prayer itself.

It also shifts the way I look at the work itself. Instead of trying to check as many boxes as I can, my focus is on doing whatever tasks God most needs me to do that day. My prayer shifts from "God, help me get through this pile as quickly as I can" to "God, help me see which of these tasks are most important to you today."

When I make that shift, I notice I'm more present, not less — I remember why I'm doing what I'm doing instead of just doing it. And that's exactly what opens me up to stopping in the middle of a task for someone who actually needs me right then, or even noticing there's a need there at all. Staying focused on the motion without the reason behind it, I'd miss them completely.

That's the real distinction underneath this passage. Martha's task wasn't the problem — plenty of what she was doing needed to be done, by someone. The one necessary thing was never a different activity to choose instead of hers. It was staying in the conversation, whatever our hands were doing.

My Response for Today:
I will look at my tasks for today and ask God to show me which ones matter the most to Him.