Mary Mindset
Nancy Carmichael / Director of Groups
Raise your hand if you know Mary and Martha.
If you’ve hung around church enough, you know these names well. And if ever you wanted a star on your Sunday School card you knew which one you wanted to be. The one Jesus commended, of course! The one who sat at His feet and LISTENED to Him. The one who Jesus said, “made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42)
You hear that, Martha? It ain’t you! (But don’t worry … you’ll have your day later … in John 11) Yeah, sign me up to be Mary. Sitting at Jesus feet. Unencumbered by all that doing and distraction and worrying about many things. Nope, I want to be free from all that. I want to be Mary.
Fortunately, I was never really all that wired as a Type A to begin with, so I’ve kind of had an advantage. In fact, you’ll forgive me for bragging, but I’ve done a lot of sitting in my life … so I’ve always considered myself something of a Type B Role Model, put here on earth to inspire (in the most delightfully annoying way) all my high capacity Type A friends. (Have you ever noticed that God tends to put you around people who are NOT LIKE YOU … on purpose??? What’s that all about???)
So imagine my shock, over the past several years, when my life started to REALLY slow down. And by slow down, I mean, to a grinding halt. All that sitting that I thought I was so good at was mere child’s play. Like I said, I honestly thought I had the whole “stop and smell the roses” thing down … until my family moved to an unfamiliar place, and I found out how much de-Martha-izing there was in store for me! In a nutshell, over the course of seven years (that’s right, SEVEN YEARS) I learned a LOT about not just slowing down, but being STILL (which is really, really HARD, btw) listening, releasing some “BIG” ideas, and focusing on seemingly “small” (as opposed to “insignificant”) things.
Needless to say I am glossing over a lot of kicking and screaming (do you really want all that TMI anyway? I didn’t think so) … but I’m happy to tell you that I eventually learned to love living this new, slow, still, small way. Because those “small” things, by the way? They’re relationships. As in, one relationship at a time. One conversation … one walk … one cup of coffee … one meal … one card sent or received … one hug … one prayer … one person at a time. And that takes time. And it may not look “productive” when you’re deep in a “Martha Mindset” … but oh, my friends, I am convinced it’s the most productive way to live life.
Like Mary, just enjoying Jesus.
And now here I am, back in Buffalo. Back to the familiar. Back on staff at Eastern Hills Church, in a role where I get to practice what I preach, and help forge relationships, one person at a time! How cool is that? And of course, the irony is, I’ve been BUSIER than I’ve been in a long time! But my prayer is that by the grace of God I will hold onto the deep “Mary Mindset” the Holy Spirit began to cultivate in me and enjoy Jesus in every person He sends my way.
I’m pretty sure that’s the right choice. And I don't want to let go of it. So, pray for me, and I’ll do the same for you!