M.A.D.D (Ministry Attention Deficit Disorder)

Scripture:
“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.”

—Luke 10:40-41

Observation:
Simply put sometimes the task takes preeminence over what is truly important.  Martha in this passage is upset because her sister Mary is not helping her with the task of ministering to Jesus and complains about it.  I sometime think that Martha gets a bum rap by many in the Church, because the reality is that somebody has to do it.  Somebody has to put in work.  It is not always as easy as just kicking back and relaxing, but a balance must be found.  Also another point I see in this passage and is, in my opinion, the source of Jesus’ rebuke is the fact that Martha is complaining.  When serving in ministry the task needs to be done out of an abundance of a joyful heart and not out of a contrite spirit.  Martha was distracted not by the task but rather by the fact that her sister, Mary, was not helping her with the said task at hand.
Application:
There was a season of ministry that I went through where I constantly sized up other people serving, or not serving to be specific, and complained that they were not pulling their weight.  This was a difficult season for me because I was never satisfied and felt close to burnout.  I almost called it quits on more than one or maybe twenty occasions.  But the source of my angst was not that I was being overworked, but rather that I was upset that others were not working as hard as I was.  I began to get distracted not by the ministry I was doing, but rather the lack of ministry that I felt others were not doing.  It is still a temptation for me to compare myself to others in ministry and size up whether I feel they are working hard enough or if I am working hard enough by comparison.  But the reality is that in doing this I am making myself the judge and that is not a job I am meant to do and that is the reason why judging others is probably so hard on me and causes so much angst when I try to act in this role.  It is God’s job to judge what people are doing including the things that I am doing.  When we begin to complain that others are not working hard enough we are trying to take on a job and task that is God’s alone.
Prayer:
Lord, sorry for trying to usurp your job.  Sorry for allowing myself to be distracted from what you have called me to because I am too busy keeping tabs on what others are doing.  Lord, help me to focus on what you are asking me to do and not what others are doing or not doing.  In Jesus name I pray Amen…