Only One Thing is Needed

As Brad's parents gave me the devotional "Jesus Calling" for Christmas, I thought it was time to start this journey through the new year. It's sure to be a whirlwind of adventures, trials and joys as we expect our first child in June. Now almost half way through, we wait with excitement and a bit of apprehension. But we know that we cannot do this without God, and today's devotional reminded me of this.

Sarah Young writes, "As you spend time with me, your thoughts tend to jump ahead to today's plans and problems. Bring your thoughts back to me.... Don't skimp on our time together."

This reminder is something that we all need, to remind us that what is truly good and truly most important is spending time with God, completely in His presence and with our thoughts fixed on Him, even when we feel that we have so little time. We must make time for God in order for Him to guide us and work in our lives the way He longs to do.

Just as Mary and Martha-

³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ 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!”

⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:39-42)

In our lives we are concerned about many things - paying the bills, getting our studies done, preparing the nursery just right, getting enough work done - but indeed only one thing is truly necessary. Instead of seeing our quiet, devotional time in prayer and scripture reading as just one of a long catalogue of 'things', this year we should aim to reorganize this scattered thinking. Our time with God is THE thing, THE ONLY thing, THE ONLY NECESSARY thing.

When I was in high school, there was a line of t-shirts that were popular, especially among athletes. They had one for basketball, soccer, football, you name it. The basketball players would walk around with these shirts that read: "Basketball is life... the rest is just details." As Christians, we need to understand that the long list of things included in our lives are 'just details' compared to Christ. In fact, we could aptly wear a shirt that says "Christ is life... the rest is just details." But then, it is more important that we wear this motto on our hearts than on our sleeves.

Dear Father, help us this year to focus on you each day, recognizing You as the center of our life, and the only thing that is needed.