It’s Good, But Does It Really Matter?

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41-42

We were moving.

We weren’t just moving to a different location; our entire way of living was about to change. We became a full-time RV family when my husband took a job on the opposite side of the country. I had just a short time to figure out what to bring and what to get rid of. In other words, I had to decide what really mattered! 

I had an entire house filled with things I THOUGHT mattered but when it came down to what would make the trip with us across the country I realized much of what I had been holding on to were good things but just didn’t matter. It was hard, but we parted with a lot of good things to keep the things that really mattered.

In Luke, Jesus comes to the home of Mary and Martha. Martha is busy preparing for His arrival. But when Jesus got there Mary, Martha’s sister, sat at Jesus’ feet. Mary stopped what she was doing to be with Jesus. Martha on the other hand was too frantic to stop. What was she frantic about? Things that really just didn’t matter. Well, they mattered to Martha just not to Jesus. When Martha approaches Jesus to ask Him to rebuke Mary and tell her sister to help her out, Jesus instead has a few words for Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,  but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Martha was concerned about a lot of good things but things that just didn’t really matter to Jesus. She wanted dinner to be perfect and as much as Jesus probably enjoyed dinner, that wasn’t what mattered to Him at the moment. 

How often do we spend countless hours filling our days with good things but things that don’t really matter for eternity?

We get so caught up in having the perfect Christmas decorations and buying the perfect gifts we forget the reason for the season.

We spend more time celebrating than worshipping.

We get distracted by keeping the perfect home that we are blinded to the fact our family is just waiting for a mom who is present with them.

We let our image impact our spirit.

We let good things override the most important things.

As I finish writing this devotional my kids are getting out ingredients to make Christmas cookies. Writing this devotional is what matters now…but in a few minutes eating some cookie dough with my kiddos will be what matters then. That’s what you call a double bonus…it Matters AND it’s GOOD!

Dear God,

Please help me to know if the things I am pouring myself into today are the same things that matter to You. Help me to let go of any good thing to make room for the things that matter most! Thank You for the times the good things end up being the things that matter and thank you for giving me grace for the times I blur the two. Open my eyes and align my ways with Yours. I commit my day to you!