Sitting on the couch on the official first day of my mini-Sabbatical, I was excited as I thought about getting done all the things I have planned and to get to mark them off my always long to-do list. It was just like my loving Father to show me right off that He’d love to meet with “Mary” instead of chasing “Martha” around town. It was no accident that I unthinkingly selected a book that had been gathering dust on the shelf alongside the many other “wanta-read-sometime” books and was taking some time to start the day with words of wisdom. The title is HAVING A MARY SPIRIT and is written by the author of HAVING A MARY HEART IN A MARTHA WORLD. Here are things I heard God saying through this book:
1. leave duties and devote time with Jesus
2. rather than striving, learn what abiding means–don’t be continually striving and never arriving
3. through the author of the book, God reiterated R. T. Kendall’s message from Sunday – “God never withholds good except when He has something better to give. Whether it’s refusing more help in the kitchen or the miraculous healing of your brother, you can be sure Jesus knows what He’s doing when He says no to our earthly requests in order to say yes to His heavenly plan.”
4. learn the balance between “a soul at rest and a body in motion, between working hard for Christ and sitting at His feet”
5. “It is in You and through You that we find our life and have our being. You take what we are and make us what we were meant to be. Partakers of Your divine nature. Reflections of Your glory.”
So, in the midst of life, I seek LIFE.
I am eager for more abiding time to balance the being helpers of people time and exercising time and study times.
As I take time to first abide, I think that Jesus will ride by my side as I am going and doing. Sweet!