Martha or Mary?

I am Catholic, and in the Catholic Church we have this thing where we have feast days where we celebrate certain saints. One day last week it happened to be the feast day of Martha and Mary. I think we all know the story, but click here for a quick review.

People were posting on Facebook all about, "Are you a Martha or a Mary?" Because we live in the digital age, and the only way I even know if it is a feast day is if Facebook tells me. 'Nough said. Actually I rely on Facebook for all news, but that's not totally relevant here....


I read the passage and I gave it a brief second of thought before realizing the Martha or Mary question is barely a question. The truth is that I am so Martha my name should probably be changed to Martha.

Martha is about doing things. About doing things for God and I am the very same way.

I am about doing things in general. Sitting at God's feet listening to him is soo not my thing. In fact that just might be the total opposite of my personality.


Still I think many more of us in this day and age have become Martha's. I read an article last week in which the author said that the problem with the modern age is that we base our worth totally on what we accomplish.

 He went so far as to say that until we can reach the end of a day without accomplishing anything important and still know our own worth; we will never be happy or satisfied (loosely paraphrased because I lost the link).

So I would beg to argue that we have become an entire nation of Martha's. Our worth is so dependent on what we do that we cannot just be. We cannot just sit at the feet of Jesus because we feel that we are not enough, because we base our entire worth on what we do.

I know this is true for me. I spent a day resting after a long week and weekend. I was working on recovering from a cold and still feeling sick. I read books and rested. I tried to just be. But for me that is nearly impossible because I have bought into the lie that unless I accomplish something I am worthless.


You might not be a full blown Martha, but I think this culture of accomplishment has affected all of us. The question then is not so much are we a Martha or a Mary but do we feel like we are enough?

Do we feel that we can just sit with God, without doing anything and be enough?

Because you are, because we are enough and we need to learn to accept that and Be Still. 

 

 

 

You are so loved!

~Emily