In Defense of Martha

    As I hurried around this week playing administrator for the majoity of my time, I kept thinking of Mary and Martha, oh how I wish Mary came first for me.  However the reality is that I am a Martha first.  I balance checkbooks at home and given some downtime at church you might just find me creating a chart to depict our giving or attendance over the year.  I like charts, I follow guidelines, meet deadlines and follow the straight line to completion.
     I was made aware of this part of myself during a bible study.  In this study the participants shared with each other what the gifts they saw in the other.  Almost everyone in the study said I had the gift of administration.  Administration!  Were they serious, I was once a Dead Head (someone who follows the Grateful Dead), I couldn't believe it, I loved poetry, and reading scripture, writing and pondering great thoughts.  Administrator?

 
Oh how I would love to have Mary be first for me, first at home to walk in the kitchen after dinner, she would walk right by those dirty dishes and straight over to some cozy spot with candles and devotionals.  At work, well at work Mary would make sure that visitations weren't the first thing to get pushed to the side when the furnace breaks.  The truth is that there are few clergy that answer the call to ministry as a Martha, Mary definitely answers the call but... well if you are me, Martha gets her foot in the door without hesitation.
     In Luke 10:42 Jesus tells Martha, after she has complained about her sister not helping with the dishes "Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her" 
    
  How comforting is this for us?  We have a choice, we have a choice to spend time in prayer, in fellowship, in community....we get to chose.  Our tendencies, our leanings, our genetics, our culture and our bias can all be overturned by choice.  We have a choice and when we chose Jesus that cannot be taken away from us.
     So I have learned to embrace the Martha in me, and while I may often feel like Dr. Dolittle's pushmi-pullyu, literally pulling in two different directions, I am a conscious participant in the struggle.  
     And finally in defense of Martha, if Mary had done just a little of the cooking , Martha might have found herself at the feet of Christ even if she was planning the next meal while she was there.