Take Time in Life
“I was passing by, my brother called me in. And he said to me. You better take time in life.
People take time in life, cause you got far way to go”– Liberian Folk Song
This season, with social distancing, quarantines and stay-at-home orders due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we as a society have all shifted into a season of stillness. It is almost like we were all just put on punishment by our parents and told we can’t leave the house! And more than that, we all just got a great big time out! When a child gets time out, it is because they have violated some rule that now requires them to sit alone and think about what they did. And while I am not sure if we have upset God, I do think we have to sit down for a while and reflect on what we are doing.
Is our life going the way we want it to?
Are we spending too much time at work and not enough time with God, our family, and our friends?
I don’t know if we are on a “time out”, but we’re definitely on a “sit down” time.
I think about the sisters, Mary and Martha, who took care of Jesus whenever he would come into town. In Luke 10:38, Martha invites Jesus into her home. When he got there, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. But Martha was working in the house, making the food and serving Jesus. As we all do, Martha started feeling some kinda way! She had to check Jesus, say, “don’t you care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Tell her to help me!” But Jesus flipped it back on Martha and told her that while she was concerned and troubled about many things, the only essential thing to do was to listen to what he was saying. “That is the essential thing, and when it gets crazy out there, it won’t be taken from Mary.” (This is the Wayne interpretation of that story!)
I believe God has provided us with a “sit down” moment. In all that is happening, it is time to turn off the TV, stop our cleaning and busyness, and just sit down and listen.
What I hear out of this scripture is a call to balance. Mary and Martha both had Jesus sitting in the house with them. One was busy trying to make things perfect for Jesus, and the other was just listening to Jesus’ knowledge. Not that her option wasn’t good or necessary, but Martha was more worried and distracted by the needs of the moment.
We need to cook and clean and serve our guests of course, but we can’t get distracted and worried by them.
We need to work, but we don’t need to get so overwhelmed that we neglect to find time to sit at the feet of Jesus.
One of the sayings that Jesus said is that “the words I have spoken to you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:36). While the above are all necessary tasks, only one will have eternal value.
In my opinion, both Martha and Mary loved Jesus. Martha was showing her love by serving Jesus, and Mary was showing her love by sitting with him. We need to be careful, because serving Jesus doesn’t always allow us the time to soak in the knowledge of Jesus. I liken it to the times my brother and I would spend with my Great-Grandmother Beatrice Goodman.
Every year, we would take her to her childhood home in Creswell, North Carolina. And we would spend a week in this home that was built in the early 1900s. The house would sit empty all year so when we got there, we had to clean it! We needed to sweep, dust, polish, and even put down mouse traps! But after a day, it was all cleaned up! And after all that cleaning, we spent the better part of two weeks in the house with her. I remember many mornings my brother and I would sit on the edge of her bed and listen to the stories she would tell about her upbringing in the segregated South. While the house needed to be cleaned, the knowledge she shared with us lasted far longer than the cleaning we did to get there.
Do not allow yourself to get so busy that you don’t have time to sit and listen to a friend, family member, spouse or children. When we return to a life post-COVID-19. remember to take time in life. Schedule time to just sit and listen to those around you. It will be time well spent. Take time in life!
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They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.— Isaiah 40:31