A Present Faith

When every-day common normalcy and routine is disrupted—during a stay-at-home order or otherwise—the thing having great potential to germinate, or to become even more realized, is faith.

Singular faith: what we believe to be the kernel underlying everything, and which presents a semblance of life having a point.

Martha and Mary were two sisters. One day, Martha invited Jesus to her house:

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-41).

“Worried and upset about many things…” 

That is the distance Martha put between herself and the one thing: singular faith that takes foundational precedence over all other faiths, making the point of it all.

Mary cast consideration upon Jesus, sensing that insight—and perhaps even faith—could be located there. 

Martha was held back, stuck in a transactional “keeping score” state of herself and her doing. Her faith was in herself and Mary and their abilities and obligations. As a result, Martha’s foundation was unsettled and resentful.

Mary’s openness, on the other hand, emanated, not from herself or from Martha or from serving—even serving such a great teacher as Jesus—but from God Himself as she studied the possibility of Him being exactly the point; the point of everything.  

Copyright Barb Harwood