Born To Serve The Lord

​Acts of service are one of the ways I show love to those around me. It’s so strange, but I am truly at my best when I am doing something for someone else. I think that’s why I’ve always loved being a nurse and why it has been so difficult for me to let it go.
I think that’s why I love the story of Mary and Martha so much. You know the one from Luke 10:38-42? If not, take a minute to go read about these two sisters. The Bible doesn’t really specify, but I have always imagined Martha was the older of the two. The scriptures says the home was hers, and Martha seemed to be in charge of everything that was going on. As a younger sibling, (number six of seven kids) that sounds like the oldest to me. Me, and I think a few of my siblings closer to the caboose end of the family, always looked to the eldest of our brood to take charge of  things where family gatherings were concerned. I was always happy to pitch in and help, but I knew I was never expected to be in charge of anything.
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Anyway, Martha invited Jesus and the disciples into her home and served them a meal. Did serving the Savior make her feel loved? I would think it should, but I don’t know. All I know is that in this text she seems to feel that her sister who is sitting at the feet of Jesus should be up helping her. Helping to carry the burden that Martha has put upon herself.

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Martha pleads her case with Jesus, wanting him to chastise Mary and make her get up and help with the preparations. I love Jesus’s answer. “You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

​Y’all, this answer sort of punches me in the gut. I have so many good intentions, get so involved in so many things that I am often frazzled and worn to a pulp. Can you relate? I think most mothers and grandmothers can. It’s so easy to spread myself so thin that I don’t make time for the better . . . for sitting at the feet of Jesus. Then, like Martha, when I am stressed and strung out, I want to blame others for not jumping in and helping in a task that they were never called to fulfill.

Does the Bible call us to serve? You better believe it. 1Peter 4:10-11 tells us to use our gifts to serve others. Philippians 2:4 says to look to the interests of others and not to the interests of ourselves.

So, if service is good, like we see it is, why is it that Mary chose better? Mary and Martha were in the presence of Jesus, but Martha was so distracted with her work, her serving, that she didn’t take time to sit at His feet and soak up the amazing gift of being near the Savior, of feeling his love. Martha’s work became an obligation, not an act of worship or an act of love. Galatians 5:13 reminds us to serve one another in love. I don’t think this is where Martha was.
Is the service I do for fellow Christians done as an offering to Christ, poured out in love? If not, why am I doing it? Would Jesus say well done, or would He tell me to choose better?
Hmmm . . . after all,  in Ephesians 2:10 it says we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. So, in the end, who chooses the good works I should be doing? Isn’t it God? If I am doing works that He hasn’t chosen, then who am I really doing them for?