Saturday Snippets #4

5/25/13 Things tend to come in 3s in order to get my attention. A morning email from my Saturday prayer warrior, Wynellen, was first affirmation that I was tracking with God in my lesson prep for simplici-TEA.

Couldn't help thinking that its really no accident you are so busy and your life is so interrupted because that is the real place to learn and practice simplicity  Yes, we need to get rid of things God has not called us to do,  but real people have interruptions.  The secret is a singleness (simplicity in a way) of mind and heart in the whirlwind. 

Secondly, the NYTimes  listed The One Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan as an advice-type bestseller. The pithy synopsis read, "Narrowing your concentration and becoming more productive." My spiritual take on that would be the same--simplicity requires a narrow focus in order to be productive in the simplicity of "kingdom living."

Then as I reread the familiar scripture of Martha and Mary in Luke chapter 10, one thought jumped off the page. One thing is needful! Maybe the analogy was to reinforce to Martha that one simple dish for the Lord would have sufficed instead of her trying to "serve" Him in an elaborate manner. (She must have lived in "the South" of Bethany, to have such a southern mentality.) But I think He was commending Mary as well for focusing on one thing as she sat at His feet.

But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. (Luke 10:42, KJV)

Underlining brings that snippet into focus for me---with singleness of mind and heart, I narrow my concentration to focus on the one thing that is needful. Time at His feet. That's simple enough.

WEEKEND QUESTIONS

5/19/12 Librarians’ rule of thumb for alphabetic index filing is “nothing comes before something”. Ex. Jake’s Radio would precede Jake’s Radio Repair. Empty spaces are important. They have a purpose.

In today’s western culture, our society tends toward busy-ness---as if we need to fill all the spaces in our llives. A full schedule is what’s important. Is one’s own importance truly measured by a busy schedule?

Certainly in the Christian realm, one needs to carefully choose how he/she fills his/her schedule. To the “outside” world, stillness and quietness in the Lord’s Presence might look like nothing or a waste of “something” called time. Yet, that “so called” nothing space should precede all our scheduled “somethings”.  They have purpose---keeping all the rest of life in order.

In Mary and Martha’s story in Luke 10: 38-42, Martha, who is busy with lots of “somethings”, sees her sister, Mary, sitting at the Lord’s feet. Martha views  this inactivity as a space that should be filled with helping her. A nothing/space with no importance.  In response, Jesus says, “ Mary has chosen that which is needful.” Time with Him might appear as an empty space but it’s an important preface for all of life’s “somethings” that will follow.

Questions:

• What is needful in life?
•  Is there something I can clear from my schedule to allow me more time to sit in His Presence?
• Does it matter what others think if I choose to pull back and fill more of my empty spaces with Him?