Luke 10:40
"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!'"
Martha Syndrome
Symptoms: Perpetual Busyness
Distraction - loss of focus
Creating work for yourself and calling it God's work
Missing the true work of God
Doubting the Lord's love and care
Thinking you know what others should be doing for the Lord
Giving the Lord orders
Martha Syndrome is like the flu. It has its seasons and it's contagious. The symptoms come on slowly but then before you know it - you're drained, wiped out and miserable. One of the early warning signs is busyness. In our society, busy people are the movers and the shakers. They are the ones who get things done. Frantic activity is a virtue in a production oriented world.
Martha-type busyness is like a virus. It turns your relationship with God into religion by taking your focus off of the Lord and onto what you do for Him. It takes away your vision and purpose, steals your joy and drives you to do things the Lord never asked for. Worse than this, we miss the "one thing that is needed" (Luke 10:41) spending time with Jesus and listening to Him.
About mid-course through the syndrome, the doubts about the Lord's love and care can creep in. How many times have we thought, "Lord don't you care..? " We start thinking the Lord is being harsh with us and easy on others. Once our relationship with the Lord has been infected, our relationships with others become negatively affected. We start thinking we know what others should be doing for the Lord, we think we know what His will for them is. We judge them as "not committed" or "immature" because they aren't doing what we think they should be. In the last stage of the syndrome we start giving orders to the Lord about what others should be doing. We may be as blatant as Martha was or we may piously try to impose our wills through prayers like, "Lord make Bob more dedicated - more on fire for you - more committed ..."
The Cure: Luke 10:39 ...sitting at the Lord's feet and listening to what He says. Finding His will for ourselves and then carrying that out.
Thought for Today:
Lord, heal me of Martha Syndrome and help me to not spread it around. Don't let me focus on other peoples relationships with You to the neglect of my own. Focus me on the one thing that is needed - YOU!