Sunday 21st July – 16C

LUKE 10:28-32
Why is it, Martha,
that for you ‘busy’ outranks
Mary’s quiet way?

Too often, like Martha,
it seems we want to assert
that doing trumps being;
that reflection is idleness
and getting things done
is what matters.

Perhaps
‘the Protestant work ethic’
blinds us to the possibility
that reflection, contemplation,
have a valid, proper, even nourishing place
in life;
and that in being distracted
by busy, hectic lives,
we often fail to be fully present,
to focus,
to listen for the Spirit of the divine,
wherever we are,
in whatever we are doing.

There is a time to be
and a time to do:
knowing which is which
calls for spiritual discernment.
Abandoning one for the other
for all time
denies us the wholeness
we yearn for.
        © Jeff Shrowder, 2013.
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