“But Martha was distracted with much serving” (Luke 10:40).
At any given moment, 660,000 drivers are using their phones. One of every four accidents comes from texting and driving. If it happens while driving, you can bet it’s happening while we engage in other parts of our lives. Why is it so hard to focus? Our phones don’t help, but that’s only part of the problem.
Whether you’re preoccupied with what’s happening somewhere on the internet or worried about what needs to get done tomorrow at work, when you split your focus, you shortchange the people and projects that deserve your wholehearted attention. It’s easy to get pulled away from parenting, working, or even worshiping. Our relationships suffer, and we suffer.
Sometimes, being half-there is worse than being gone.
Here’s how it usually goes: first, we get distracted, then we become divided, then we grow distant.
Distracted
When Jesus visited his dear friends Mary and Martha in Bethany, Martha went all out to care for the Lord and his band of traveling companions. She “was distracted with much serving” (Luke 10:40). It’s good to serve, but not to get distracted by serving.
The word translated as “distracted” means “to be pulled away from a reference point” or “to have one’s attention directed from one thing to another … quite busy, overburdened” (BDAG). Distraction can only happen when my focus drifts from what matters most at that moment. So when Martha complained about Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet and leaving her to fret over the hosting duties, Jesus lovingly redirected her focus.
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42).
So much of life comes down to discerning the “one thing” that’s “necessary.” Each day, find the better portion that will last and be present to that.
Divided
When we get distracted, we become divided. Justin Whitmel Early illustrates this by pointing to the villain in the Harry Potter books, who seeks immortality by putting a piece of himself into seven objects called Horcruxes. Early explains, “What he doesn’t realize is, that in trying to multiply his presence everywhere, he splits his own soul. In the end, the very effort to be omnipresent is the cause of his absence.” And isn’t that how it goes with us when we try to accomplish too many things all at once? May we bring purpose and intentionality to our lives, declaring with Paul, “I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air” (1 Cor. 9:26). We have to train ourselves to look at what’s in front of us, not all the shiny distractions on the periphery (Prov. 4:25).
“Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you” (Prov. 4:25).
Distant
When we get divided, we can get distant and disappear from our lives. Many of us can relate to the dad in Incredibles 2 whose wife needed some help with her kids, saying, “Bob, it’s time to engage! Do something! Don’t just stand there. I need you to … intervene!” I’ve sometimes seemed to float into space and heard, “Earth to Ryan! Are you here?” Sometimes, being half-there is worse than being gone. And just like Mrs. Incredible urged her husband, we close the distance by loving people enough to “do something.” So, “let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). We must see people, see needs and opportunities, and get involved.
No one had a more demanding job than Jesus in his ministry, yet when he talked to people like the woman at the well, in those moments, it was as if they were the only people in the world
What’s the Solution?
We’ve seen three actions in the verses above.
- Rather than being distracted, we must discern what matters, the good, lasting portion.
- Rather than being divided, we must decide what matters most, giving it our entire focus.
- Rather than being distant, we must do it, lovingly engaging with people and situations.
No one had a more demanding job than Jesus in his ministry, yet when he talked to people like the woman at the well, in those moments, it was as if they were the only people in the world (John 4; cf. Mark 1:28ff). When it’s time to rest, we must let other things go enough to rest (Ps. 4:8; 127:1-2; Mark 2:27; 6:31-32). When it’s time to work, Christians need to “work heartily, as for the Lord” and “do it with your might” (Eccles. 9:10). And when it’s time to worship, the Lord certainly deserves for us to come with our heart and soul (Matt. 15:8; Ps. 25:1; 42:4).