“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.” (Luke 10:41-42, NIV)

In my writerly, practical, industrious sort of way, I can get busy. After all, writing is serving. It is ministry. And it’s my calling. But what if serving goes sour? What if trying to keep up with writing projects causes anxiety?

Here’s another what-if.

What if God cracked open a dark corridor to my heart and found pride growing in there like icky mold? Pride is sneaky like that. It garbs itself with anxiety, trembling from the fear of what others think of me if I can’t produce according to their expectations. But hey, forget their expectations. What about mine? Sometimes I need to accomplish certain things just to feel better about myself. But that’s not serving. That’s selfish.

Am I meddling yet?

I’ll tell you what stirred this up. It was a fine article at Desiring God. In a piece entitled The Secret to Doing What Matters Most Jon Bloom hits a nerve. If what motivates us, he says, is the desire to impress others, that is not love:

“It is self-exultation masquerading as diligent, competent, productive service. What’s driving me is a fear of man or a desire for the praise of man. I’m anxious and troubled because to be admirable requires getting more done than I can possibly do. And doing more than Jesus requires. So I scurry around and, in the process, often neglect the most important things.”

Bloom reminds us that we order our lives by what we love.

Martha needed to get things done. Mary needed to be near Jesus.

It’s easy to get distracted with our own agendas, but our acceptance is in Him. We don’t need to strive, fret, or worry. We don’t need other voices to praise us, or glorious ‘by-lines’ in the business to fulfill our calling.

Jesus is our One Thing Needed. Everything else will fall into place.

From your “recovering Martha”. . . learning to serve my audience of One.