As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

The story of Mary and Martha is one that is often told among groups of women as a cautionary tale of what NOT to do. In a little bit of online browsing I came across an article on Crosswalk.com entitled, “The Women in Christ’s Life: Martha, Mary’s Sister.” This article shows a different interpretation of Martha’s actions, one that makes her immeasurably more sympathetic in my opinion.

Swiatocho says:

“I don’t know about you but I struggle sometimes with having to choose to either sit at Jesus’ feet or do His work . . . Personally, I believe Martha did love Jesus and did value his presence, but due to her life situation felt necessary to take care of her home first. She simply was doing what was good versus what was best.”

I often feel like I do good things, and more than once I feel like I could have done better. Was Martha so busy trying to organize the Bible study that she forgot to actually connect with the Lord when she was reading her Bible. Has the stress of creating the praise and worship team led her from her own personal worship? There are often times when I get so wrapped up in working on something for the Lord that I forget to take a moment and thank Him, praise Him, talk with Him.

Swiatocho’s article also details seven things that she learned from Martha, and after reading this article, I look at Martha in a new way. Not as the psycho crazy cleaning lady who didn’t take time for JESUS, but as a real person that I have been and will be again if I don’t stop to remember why I’m running around to frantically.