Wednesday’s Reading: Matthew 26:3-19, Mark 14:1-11, Luke 21:37 – 22:6, John 12:1-8
“For she has done a beautiful thing to me.” – Jesus (Matthew 26:10)
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Last Friday, I looked over our calendar for this week. Really? We didn’t have a single evening event. No dinners. No guests. No meetings.
Awww…yes. I took a deep breath, thankful for a quiet week ahead. But then I felt a quick twinge of guilt:
“You’re planting a church and it’s Easter week and you’re not doing anything! You can’t just sit around all week and do nothing. You need to invite the neighbors over or plan a dinner for connecting people or blessing some of your leaders. Go feed the homeless or something! Come on, little Miss Missional, don’t waste your time!”
And then I sat down at my computer to write this post and I kicked that ridiculousness to the curb and decided to practice what I preached and allow the Patterson fam one week of quiet. A bit of white space to FOCUS …
on wasting time with Jesus.
Today in the readings we see the religious leaders gathering at the palace of the high priest to discuss how they can secretly arrest and kill Jesus. We see Judas agreeing to betray Jesus. We see Jesus continuing to teach in the temple. And we see Mary break her alabaster flask and pour out her expensive ointment, anointing Jesus with worship, with love. Remember this beautiful waste ?… Mary tiptoed into the room, quietly knelt, and broke her alabaster flask, anointing Jesus’ feet …(the rest here)
Everyone said it was a waste, but Jesus said it was beautiful.
Could you carve out some time today to waste at Jesus’ feet?
Martha was busy, right? Busy checking off her “must do” list:
- Perhaps she was dyeing Easter eggs or sewing her daughter’s pastel dress.
- Perhaps she had to have the house perfect before the guests arrived.
- Perhaps she was fixing an elaborate Easter meal which consumed her thoughts and energy for the week.
- Perhaps she had Easter crafts up to her eyeballs.
- Perhaps she was trying to figure out what to wear to church on Sunday.
- Perhaps she was searching Pinterest to find all the best Easter ideas.
Or she may have been so busy doing awesome “ministry” stuff that she didn’t have time to sit down and actually be with Jesus.
I’ve lived Martha-style a lot. But these days I’ve loving a little Mary-margin in my days and a lot of wasted time just focusing my gaze on Jesus. And this week, I’ve made some drastic (for me) steps to simmer down, simplify, and be with Him. And you know what? He’s SO worth wasting time with! So that’s our focus for today:
FOCUS on wasting time simply sitting with Jesus.
Reflection for today: Look over your calendar and to-do lists for this week and carefully consider whether you can cut out any unnecessary activity. Allow some extra margin, some white space, and purposefully schedule time to do nothing but sit, pray, listen to worship music, read scripture, and talk to God. Give your heart time with Jesus. This is the best possible way to celebrate the fact that He is alive today. Hang with Him today! Thanks for reading.