My Many Things

The sink is piled with dishes.  Dinner is sizzling on the stove.  The outside staircase is being rebuilt, which means lots of pounding, rattling, and shouting.  Nothing seems finished and there is so much more to do.

This is the point in the semester where each day is full from beginning to end.  My mind runs from one thing to another, not stopping fully on any.  Today, tomorrow, the rest of the semester, Christmas gifts, my trip to California, next semester, lists, questions, goodbyes, meetings...

I stand there, vaguely aware of the knots in my shoulders and my stomach.

Through the swirl of anxious thoughts, a line from a story I know well breaks in: And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.  But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42)

Me and my many things.  I carry them all, weighed down and stumbling around, when Jesus gently reminds me (again)...

There is only one thing necessary.  To be in His presence.

I don't want to be Martha, this picture of fretfulness, yet here I am.  Again.  Still.

I want this season to be marked by peace and joy, by remembering and celebrating.  Not things.  Not worry.  Not a furrowed brow and sore shoulders.  Not the exhaustion that comes from too much - too much thinking, too much doing, too much planning.

So I sit down, silent for just a few minutes.  There is peace and joy and hope and grace and His presence here.

Yes, He is always with us - in the mess and noise, in the worry we sometimes allow ourselves to be swept into.  This is today's celebration of Emmanuel, untidy and unsparkling though it may be.