Have you ever noticed how people differ? Some people can focus on only one thing at a time. Others are not happy unless they have several projects going at the same time. Then there are some people who are so focused it's scary. I chuckled when I read Lawrence A. Keating's description of something that happened during the 1946 Oklahoma-Army football game.
Oklahoma coach Jim Tatum paced the sidelines frantically as the Army team took a 21-7 lead over his Sooners. Nearby sat punter Charlie Sarratt, his sprained ankle submerged in a bucket of ice water. As the intensity of the game dried his throat, Tatum reached down, took Sarratt's foot out of the ice water and took a swig of the water Sarratt's foot had been soaking in. Then he gently replaced the foot in the pail and resumed pacing, without ever looking away from the field. (1) Now that's concentration.
Some people are like that. They are utterly focused. Others scatter their energy in many directions. People are different. Even within the same family. Take Mary and Martha. Sisters ” and yet they were as different as day and night.
Martha was the doer. The mother hen. You can see her, can~t you? Wiping her hands on her apron and brushing the hair back out of her eyes as she hurries about making sure that everyone is taken care of. And then there's Mary. More phlegmatic. A dreamer more than a doer. While Martha hurries about getting the house in order, Mary positions herself at the feet of the Rabbi in rapt attention. She has never met anyone like Jesus before. Such wisdom, such power. Mary is swept up by the Master~s words.
Martha wishes Mary were swept up with the chores that have to be done. All her life Martha has been doing while her sister has been dreaming. Oh, Martha loved Mary; she just wished she would do her share. There was so much to be done. Vegetables to chop, fruit to be washed, tables to be set. Martha even complained about it to the Master. "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me."
Jesus loved and admired both these women. My guess is that he had a warm, understanding smile on his face when he said, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has taken the good portion which shall not be taken from her." Let's linger for a few moments with Jesus' words, because they contain wise advice for us as well as for Martha.
"YOU ARE ANXIOUS AND TROUBLED ABOUT MANY THINGS," says Jesus. That is certainly a word for our time.
I read something recently that is a beautiful metaphor for our world. It seems that Magnavox, the electronics company, has dramatically increased the number of "picture-in-picture" TVs they have been building. For the uninitiated these "picture-in-picture" TVs enable viewers to watch two shows simultaneously on one screen. When used in conjunction with a videocassette recorder's tuner, the viewer can watch two live programs simultaneously or one live and one taped. The second program appears in an inset box located in the corner of the television screen. Studies show that 75 percent of television watchers already view two shows at the same time by flipping back and forth between channels using remote controls. Magnavox calls this trend "grazing." It is also called channel surfing. Now I suppose that by skillfully flipping the remote while watching his picture-in-picture TV, Dad can actually watch four shows at a time. Young people have no idea that once upon a time families were actually content to watch one program at a time for sometimes up to two hours.
We are a restless people obsessed with many things. And certainly we are anxious about these many things. We have even coined a term, "stress," to describe our condition. We can blame a fumbling young researcher named Hans Selye for introducing us to stress. Selye had a bad habit of dropping his lab rats, chasing them around the room, and trapping them beneath a sink. When they developed ulcers and shrunken immune tissues, Selye did some tests and realized what was happening: His clumsiness was making them sick. Searching for a word to describe this response to life under tension, Selye borrowed a term from engineering ” and "stress" was born. It's an important word. (2)
Stress may be killing more of us than AIDS. About 25 million Americans are thought to have hypertension, although half of this number don't even know they have it. Stress is frequently found as the major cause for respiratory infections, arthritis, colitis, asthma, uneven heart rhythms, many sexual problems, circulatory problems, and even cancer. The doctors of the American Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine believe that 75 to 90 percent of all reported diseases are due in part to stress. The three best-selling prescription drugs in America are Valium for relaxation, Inderal for high blood pressure, and Tagamet for ulcers. Leaders in industry estimate that 50 to 75 billion dollars are lost each year due to stress-related symptoms. (3) Stress takes a heavy toll on us.
Even if our health is not at risk, certainly our peace of mind is. We're like that couple who had their home broken into. The husband heard a noise in the middle of the night. He went downstairs to investigate and found a burglar emptying the silver chest. He said to the man, "Stay where you are. I want to get my wife. She has been expecting you for twenty years." We are anxious and troubled about many things. But listen to Jesus' words: ONE THING IS NEEDFUL.
Here is the secret to a successful, well-ordered life: Make sure your priorities are in order. I can save you money on your next time-management seminar. Make sure your priorities are in order. I can help you sleep better at night. Make sure your priorities are in order. I can probably save you a few trips to the doctor. Make sure your priorities are in order. This is the key to working smart as well as working hard. Make sure your priorities are in order. What are those things in your life that are really vital? Take care of those first, then if the rest get done, fine. But it's no big deal.
John C. Maxwell tells about an Eastern Airlines jumbo jet that crashed in the Everglades of Florida sometime back. The plane was the now famous Flight 401, bound from New York to Miami with a heavy load of holiday passengers. As the plane approached the Miami airport for its landing, the light that indicates proper deployment of the landing gear failed to light. The plane flew in a large, looping circle over the swamps of the Everglades while the cockpit crew checked to see if the gear actually had not deployed, or if instead the bulb in the signal light was defective. When the flight engineer tried to remove the light bulb, it wouldn~t budge. The other members of the crew tried to help him. As they struggled with the bulb, no one noticed the aircraft was losing altitude, and the plane simply flew right into the swamp. Dozens of people were killed in the crash. While an experienced crew of high-priced pilots fiddled with a seventy-five-cent light bulb, the plane with its passengers flew right into the ground. (4)
That happens sometimes. It happens in business, it happens in the home, it happens in our daily lives. We lose sight of what really matters.
Martha wanted to be the perfect hostess and that is well and good. But the Master was in her home. He only had a short time to spend there. Martha had the opportunity to soak up words that would enrich her life immeasurably. Certainly the needs of her guests were important but this was not the time. How foolish we can be when we do not keep life in its proper perspective.
A mountain guide, Michael Zanger, once told of leading some men up Mount Shasta. One man was having great difficulty breathing. His face coloring was unusual. Frequent stops for rest did not seem to help. As they continued to climb, his breathing was punctuated by coughing and spitting froth mixed with blood. To make matters worse, a sudden snowstorm confined them to hastily erected tents. Michael thought the man might die of heart failure. As he lay there, Michael revealed that they could call for rescuers because he had a cellular phone. The man showed interest.
"Would you make a personal call for me?" asked the man.
Michael thought to himself, "This man thinks he's critical, and he wants to speak to his loved ones one last time," so he said, "Yes."
"Well," said the man, "would you call my broker in San Francisco and ask what the value of my stock is today?" That actually happened! The absurdity of what was important to this man became a frequent joke on future climbs. (5)
If you are anxious about many things, it may be that your priorities are out of order. This brings us to the most important thing to be said in this regard: THERE IS ONE PRIORITY THAT WILL MAKE THE OTHERS EASIER ” SPEND SOME TIME EACH DAY WITH THE MASTER. Learn from Mary's example. Take some time to sit at the feet of Jesus. That can be done in reading daily from his words or in a time of meditation and prayer. Moments spent in his company will help you sort out the rest of your priorities. Particularly when life gets hard, time spent with him is essential.
Norman Vincent Peale once told of a visit he made to Belgium after World War
II. He went to a place called Breendonk. During the war, Breendonk had been a notorious prison in which the Nazis had incarcerated loyal, patriotic Belgians who had resisted the invaders. The Nazis had treated the Belgians like animals, keeping them in miserable little cells, torturing them and trying to crush their spirits. But the prisoners kept up their courage even when times were the most difficult. After having walked through one of the dark, dismal passageways of the former prison, Peale said he asked his guide: "How could they stand it? How could they stand up under the terrible stress of trying to survive in this horrible place?"
The guide told Peale to follow him and he would show Peale how they survived. Taking Peale back into one of the darkest cells of the prison, the guide showed Peale a crude outline of a man~s face that had been carved on the stone wall of the cell. It was someone's representation of the face of Jesus. "When things were the hardest and our people were about to give up because they thought they could stand it no more, they would come in here," the guide said. "They would put their hands on the face of Jesus to remind themselves that they were not alone."
The guide told Peale that one night the Nazis came and took away the guide's own father. They never saw him again. They learned after the war that he had been imprisoned at Breendonk and, though they couldn't be sure, they felt probably he had died there. "My father was a devout Christian," the guide said. "We were told that often he came here to place his hand over the face of Jesus." (6)
These soldiers knew where to turn to make their lives bearable. So did Mary. She positioned herself so that she could look into the face of Jesus. Wise people of every age have learned that same lesson.
You and I are anxious about many things. We need to get our priorities in order. We, too, need to begin by setting aside a few moments every day to feed on the risen Christ. We, too, need to spend some time each day looking into the face of Jesus.
1. Elliot Johnson, THE POINT AFTER, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Daybreak Books, Zondervan Publishing House, 1987).
2. "A Nation Out of Balance," by Barbara Paulsen, HEALTH, October 1994, p. 45
3. John Powell, S.J., HAPPINESS IS AN INSIDE JOB, (Allen, Texas: Tabor Publishing, 1989), p. 43.
4. DEVELOPING THE LEADER WITHIN YOU, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993).
5. Gary Anderson in Eileen H. Wilmoth, 365 DEVOTIONS, (Cincinati, Ohio: The Standard Publishing Company, 1993).
6. THE AMAZING RESULTS OF POSITIVE THINKING, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1959), pp. 124-125. Cited in J. B. Fowler, Jr., ILLUSTRATING GREAT WORDS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1991).