The One Thing

DAILY BYTE

At the risk of oversimplifying the Mary and Martha story, what is the one thing that Mary is doing that Martha is not? What is the ‘one thing’ that we have to figure out about this story?

Well, at its core this is a story about listening. Yes, listening! That is the one thing Mary was doing that Martha was not ... listening. On Tuesday, we spoke about how the central idea to holding together all the many demands of our busy lifestyles was not balance but harmony. Well, you don’t need to be a musician to know that you cannot harmonise unless you carefully listen!

The one thing! It’s not reading self-help books or listening to CD’s on time management (although they certainly can help). Instead, the most important thing we can do is found our lives upon a discipline of careful listening to God, because that listening is what brings our hearts and lives INTO balance. It harmonises us with the beat and rhythm of God’s purposes in this world.

In other words, when we listen carefully to God on a daily basis, we find where he most wants us to be – where God most wants us to expend our energy and presence. God may be constantly changing our priorities according to his greater work, and surely the most balanced way to be is to carefully listen to where exactly God may be desiring us to focus. For a certain season, God may want us to direct as much time as possible towards our families, or our work, or just to take more time off.

This way of life acknowledges that God is not himself contained in just one section of our lives, but rather that God directs and affects every part of who we are.

If listening carefully to God’s direction becomes a part of our daily rhythms, we will find ourselves living in harmony with the beat of God in our lives.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O God, help me to create the space in my life to listen more carefully to you. Speak to me, Almighty God, and direct my paths. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Deuteronomy 6 : 4-9

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.