What Distracts You?

We live in such a busy, busy world these days.  We are mentally pulled one way, then another.  We tend to multitask and sometimes find ourselves moving from one thing to another without completing anything – sometimes leaving important things unfinished.  We get easily distracted.  I believe we’d all be better off if we could learn to slow our lives down a bit and focus on what is the most important thing around us.  

Marriages suffer because spouses are distracted by work and sometimes even by “play”; family relationships suffer when children are neglected by overly busy, distracted parents; friendships suffer because we can tend to be distracted by less important personal things than on helping and serving our friends in need; our spiritual lives suffer when we are distracted by all the worldly things spinning around us, etc.

Recently during my study time I came across this passage – Luke 10:38-42 NLT:  

“As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.’  But the Lord said to her, ‘My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

When you first read this passage you may think something like this – “Well, Martha had a right to be upset.  After all, they had a sizable group of guests in their home that were likely very tired  and hungry from their travels.  They needed to be fed and Martha was trying to be a good hostess, while Mary was just slacking off.”   

It doesn’t say this, but I suspect that when the word got out that Jesus was at Martha and Mary’s home, many others had crowded inside to hear Jesus speak – that seemed to be how things happened everywhere He went.  When Martha complained to Him, the response by Jesus seemed to indicate that He had no concern about the food being prepared.  He likely was very much “in the zone” teaching and instructing all those that were present, and Martha’s interruption to complain was very much a distraction to what He was trying to accomplish in that moment.  The fact that her sister Mary was much more interested in what Jesus had to say than flitting around trying to prepare a big meal tells me that she was hungry for the Word.  

It also doesn’t tell us what happened after that.  Did Martha, feeling embarrassed by what Jesus said to her, leave the room and go about preparing the meal for everyone?  Or, did she shrug her shoulders, turn off the stove and sit down next to Mary and listen to Jesus?  In other words, did she put her distraction aside and put the more important thing happening at that moment in the place of prominence where it belonged?  I’d like to think that the result was the second scenario – that Martha didn’t allow the distraction to cause her to miss out on what was much more important.  

When I consider my own life, I’d like to think that I am learning how to do that as well – to stop trying to focus on too many things at the same time – getting distracted, elevating the less important and neglecting the more important things.  I need to learn to be less like a Martha and be a Mary instead – focusing only on what I need to be concerned about.  I believe when I learn to do that, everything else will fall into place as it should.         

So what distracts you?  Are you ready to face up to it and be more like Mary?

Written by Karran Martin – December 2, 2023

[Bold emphasis is mine]