Our third-weekend opening café AWAKE were both slow days. I could have easily begun to panic, wondering will anyone come. However, although the days were quiet and restful, I was able to work on promotion and building AWAKEs’ online presence.
This morning I read Jesus' words to Martha:
And Jesus answered and said to her,
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Martha saw the mountains of preparations, the piles of things to be done and became overburdened. She needed help—and from her limited perspective decided Mary was the one who needed to help her. Without that help it would never get done.
Worry, anxiety, distress all stem from placing too much belief or focus on negative outcomes.
In a contrary manner, strength, stability, and courage arise from expectations of positive results. This is where faith comes into play. Our expectations can be grounded in our understanding of a good Father that desires to give his children good things. Inspite of our limited perspective, we choose to believe God can help me. This is “the one thing needed” Jesus speaks to Martha about—the good thing Mary choose. Aside from our efforts, aside from our circumstances, God cares for our soul. He will carry us on into an entirely new creation of perfected eternity. We don't know the outcome. Who helped with all the preparations? How did it turn out? We don't know. The story goes on, so apparently it wasn't as big a deal as Martha thought. So how big can a few momentary troubles be? It all depends how big your God is, in comparison.