Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – James 4-5
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 10:41-42
Jesus: Oh Martha, Martha, you are so anxious and concerned about a million details, but really, only one thing matters. Mary has chosen that one thing, and I won’t take it away from her.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
It’s easy to get busy doing good things, isn’t it? I remember my days as Chief of Staff at the Army Medical Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston. My calendar was crazy. It wa filled with meetings and appointments that were good. They were important. They needed to be conducted. But looking back, I’m not sure I really should have let my schedule get as crazy as I did.
I let other people handle my schedule and I ended up with back to back meetings every 30 minutes from 7 in the morning until 6 in the evening five days a week and most evenings and weekends were filled with Army, city, and church activities. I had no time left over in the schedule for three years for much of anything. I had to schedule time with Carole and my kids and there wasn’t near enough of it as I look back at those years.
It wasn’t that I was doing bad things, but it certainly wasn’t the best things. Oh, I had an important position and everyone at Fort Sam Houston knew who I was. I interacted with a lot of important people as I acted as advisor to the city council on matters pertaining to the installation at times, state and federal agencies operating in and around Fort Sam Houston, or interfaced with organizations like the Red Cross, Veterans’ Administration, several of the school districts, the medical community in San Antonio, the Chamber of Commerce, and a host of other agencies and activities. I did a lot of good things with all those appointments and meetings and conferences. As I look back at those things, I think I helped the installation, the school and the medical community progress in its care of both military personnel and the civilian community, particularly in the area of trauma support.
But was it the best use of those hours during those three years? Quite frankly, I don’t know. I was able to share my story a few times both with individuals and in public forums giving credit to God for the successes I enjoyed in my career, but I was called to preach in 1980 and I had very little time left in my calendar to preach or provide the blogs and podcasts I’m doing now, sharing God’s words consistently.
So was what I was doing what Martha doing? Going around attending to all the details at the expense of sitting at the feet of Jesus and soaking in the best He has for me? I admit, sometimes I think I was. I think I let my job and those responsibilities keep me from the call God placed on my life on that I promised to fulfill on that September evening in 1980. I still did things with my church. I still kept up my devotions. I still shared with some about the faith I felt and used to keep everything in perspective. But I let the details block out the goodness of just stopping sometimes and sitting at the feet of the Master.
I’m trying to do better. I’m trying to leave room in my calendar for God to work. I try to remember that everything is secondary to His schedule. Like the Good Samaritan that disrupted his plans and spent at least a day and a night tending to a stranger injured on the road, I want to be ready to give up my schedule to the best God has instead of the good I might have planned.
So what about you? Have you let your life get so cluttered with details that you don’t have time to let God intervene with His schedule? Have you planned every moment and hold on to those moments with such tenacity that God can’t get in no matter how hard He tries? That’s what Martha did and she was scolded when she tried to get Mary to stop listening to Jesus and help her with all those preparations.
Sometimes we just need to remember God cares more about our relationship with Him than He does the glitter and glamor and ritual and preparation we seem to do to get ready to meet Him. He just wants us to sit at His feet and listen. Don’t let all the other stuff become distractors from listening to His voice. Even when we do good things we can sacrifice the best if we’re not careful. So how do we know we are doing the best and not just the good?
Stay in His word. Pray often. Listen for His spirit’s prompting and then obey that still small voice that speaks to you. Become sensitive to His voice and obey when you hear Him call. Don’t let anything become more important than His words in your ear. When you listen to Him and obey His call, you won’t be sorry. You’ll discover incredible truth and do incredible things in His name.
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