Episode Transcript
CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
THE WORD OF THE LORD
Luke 10:38–42 NIV
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
CONSIDER THIS
If you’ve ever hosted people in your home, you understand Martha. I have a lot of Martha in me. I can turn love into pressure and service into striving.
She isn’t lazy. She isn’t shallow. She isn’t trying to impress Jesus as much as she is trying to love him well. There’s food to prepare. A room to straighten. A dozen details that feel holy because they are offered for Jesus.
And yet Luke tells us Martha was “cumbered about much serving.” She’s pulled in too many directions. Distracted. Overextended. What began as hospitality has become heaviness.
Meanwhile Mary is doing the one thing Martha cannot stand: she is sitting. At Jesus’s feet. Listening.
Martha finally says what we’ve all said in one form or another: “Lord, do you not care?” Do you not care that I’m carrying this alone? Do you not care that I’m doing all the work? Do you not care that I’m exhausted?
Listen to the way Jesus responds: “Martha, Martha.” He says her name twice—tenderly, not tersely. Then he names the true issue: “You are careful and troubled about many things.”
Jesus does not rebuke her service. He awakens her to what’s underneath it. Anxiety has slipped into the driver’s seat. The to-do list has started to define her worth. The urgent has crowded out the important.
Then Jesus offers an invitation that feels like a lifeline: “But one thing is needful.” One thing. Not ten. Not everything. One thing.
Mary has chosen the better part.
It’s Tuesday, which means the week is moving and the pressure to produce can quietly return. For some of us it also means tacos. For all of us, it means we get another chance to choose what will lead the day—our hurried effort, or Jesus’s unhurried presence.
Awakening often looks like this: we wake up from distraction to presence. We stop measuring our lives by what we can accomplish and start receiving our lives as a gift from Jesus. We learn that being with him is not a reward for finishing our work; it is the source for doing our work in love.
So here’s a simple practice for today: pick a “one thing” moment. Before the phone, before the email, before the news, before you rehash yesterday or rehearse tomorrow—sit at Jesus’s feet for five minutes. Read the text again. Breathe his name. Whisper, “Jesus, I belong to you.” Let him steady your soul.
As we head toward the end of the year, many of us feel Martha’s swirl—family dynamics, financial pressures, unfinished goals, the noise of the next thing. Today, Jesus calls us back to the one thing.
Before you rush into the day, sit at his feet. Open the Word. Offer your attention. Let his presence quiet the anxious places in you. Then, from that stillness, go serve—sowing love today, not out of hurry, but out of abiding.
PRAYER
Jesus, you know how easily we become careful and troubled about many things. Meet us in our serving and free us from striving. Call us back to your feet. Teach us to listen again. Help us choose the better part—your presence—before we try to manage the day. And as you quiet our anxious hearts, send us to sow love today with joy and peace. We pray in your name, amen.
