Having A Mary Heart In A Martha WorldSample

Trying to Do It All

Have you ever tried to do it all? I have, I do, and I probably always will. It’s not only in my nature; it’s also in my job description—and yours, too. Being a woman requires more stamina, more creativity, and more wisdom than I ever dreamed as a young girl. And that’s not just true for today’s busy women. It has always been the case, as we see in the story of Mary and Martha. 

In fact, perhaps no passage of Scripture better describes the conflict we feel as women than the one we find in Luke 10:38–42. We’ve all felt the struggle. We want to worship like Mary, but the Martha inside keeps bossing us around.

Take a moment to read the passage from Luke now….

In the midst of your own busyness, deep inside of you there is a hunger, a calling, to know and love God. To truly know Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit. You’re not after more head knowledge—it’s heart-to-heart intimacy you long for. 

Yet a part of you hangs back. Exhausted, you wonder how to find the strength or time. Nurturing your spiritual life seems like one more duty—one more thing to add to a life that is spilling over with responsibilities. 

It’s almost as if you’re standing on the bottom rung of a ladder that stretches up to heaven. Eager but daunted, you name the rungs with spiritual things you know you should do: study the Bible, pray, fellowship... 

“He’s up there somewhere,” you say, swaying slightly as you peer upward, uncertain how to begin or if you even want to attempt the long, dizzy climb. But to do nothing means you will miss what your heart already knows: There is more to this Christian walk than you’ve experienced. 

“Mary has chosen what is better?” I say to God in the midst of my own whirl of activity. “You mean I have to do more?” 

No, no, comes the answer to my tired heart. Jesus’ words in Luke 10 are incredibly freeing to those of us on the performance treadmill of life. 

It isn’t “more” He requires of us. In fact, it may be less. 

What are some of the “spiritual” things you do that feel more like tasks than ways to grow in intimacy with God? Why do you think you respond to them that way?