Beautiful Chaos

Oh, I’m just thinking right now. Again. This time I’m sitting in the ICU at a hospital, looking over at my sister-in-law, who is also a best friend, she is recovering from almost bleeding to death.

Yep, you heard me. I said bleeding to death.

She is always go, go, going – more than usual lately. Life has been hectic with all of the beautiful chaos(we all have the beautiful chaos, right?). Children, husband, parental units to worry about, an acreage and a household to help run, a career, political campaigning, hobbies…seriously. Life. Is. Busy.

Too busy.

When do we stop to take care of ourselves? When does the beautiful chaos stop so we can smell the roses?

She was concerned with the well being of everyone else and forgot to care for her self. How many times have you done this in life? I know I have so many times, I can’t even count. I’ve just never ended up in critical care because of it.

Is this what God intended for the human race? Live in the beauty of chaos? No, I’m pretty sure the busy life thing is the plan of another. Keeping us all insanely busy so that we miss the reason for life in the first place. I swear, you can find anything in the Bible and relate it somehow to life in the here and now. The word of God is amazing like that and for this I am infinitely grateful. In this passage from Luke 10:38-42, Jesus lets us know what is truly important.

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42).

What is the better part?

It is being a disciple of Jesus, that’s the better part. Not that Martha was necessarily wrong in the way she wanted to serve the Lord, no, not at all. She just had her priorities mixed up, lost her focus, let the anger overwhelm. Became distracted. Plus Mary was her younger sister who may have been a tad bit more on the scholarly side. The annoying to a big sister scholarly side, as depicted in this painting by Tintoretto as Mary sat at the foot of Jesus learning. Sibling rivalry, anyone?

Yes. Sitting here in this hospital is reminding me, once again that I need to stop. Stop and smell the roses, sit at the foot of Jesus for a while, and thank Him for everything that is. Because life is too precious to become that busy.