Choosing the Better Part: Choosing to Listen

As we grow in our faith it is so incredibly easy to become obsessed with “doing.” Lately, I have found myself falling into this trap in trying to carve out extra time to go to the soup kitchen, or in obsessively planning out my day to figure out how to best manage my time to study. Other times I drift off during class to daydream of how I can best give of my life over the course of the next thirty years, or what I can be doing better to serve the community. It is in these moments where I often become anxious and tend to put pressure on myself to continue to serve. This is dangerous. While these are not corrupt desires, it is important to examine where these desires are originating.

In the Gospel of Luke we are introduced to a woman named Martha who, “was distracted by her many tasks” (10:40). Martha had a sister named Mary who, “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying” (10:39). These are crucial descriptions juxtaposing the two characters. Martha then says, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me” (10:40). Martha’s concern is on the things that she has to do, and looks to Mary in Mary’s idleness to determine that what Mary is not doing is less important than the many tasks she has to perform. Jesus’s response to this is golden, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her” (10:42). Jesus calms Martha's anxiety and affirms that what Mary is doing - in her choice to sit at his feet - is the better part. 

While I am very easily able to identify with Martha in this passage, it is impossible to miss Mary’s description as choosing to sit at the Lord’s feet and listen to what he is saying. Jesus tells Martha that Mary chose the better part because she has chosen to sit and listen to him, while Martha is anxiously concerned with the things that she has to do. What I take away from this is that service is needed, work is needed, but what is more needed is consciously choosing to take the time to sit in silence before God and actually listen to what he is speaking into my life at any given moment. To choose is not a matter of luck, but a matter of my will. How willing am I to let go of my cares and sit at the feet of Christ letting him pour into me to calm my anxiety and give me direction in my day? Just as Martha needed to have her anxiety calmed and have Jesus tell her that it is better to sit at his feet and listen, so often do I need the same.  

To be with Christ in silence is good. To serve through Christ is good. But our hearts must be open to his will and not our own. Holiness, happiness and fulfillment are found in this peace, in this choice.