So we are in the 6th week of school and this is like the time, for me at least, that I have to be start getting more serious. First round of tests are done and I usually don’t do so hot because I’m still feeling out what its going to be like. The beginning of a new year/semester can be a hard time to distinguish the parts in our life that are important and areas that we should stress more. As a senior, I still struggle with figuring out how I am going to balance everything. For example, I spent the first couple weeks of school sick, but as I was getting better and could start to put more energy into things I had to really crack down on what I needed to do. I probably should have put more energy into catching up on schoolwork since I missed two weeks, but instead I stressed about the perfect outfit for the first game (still important to me but I could’ve made the better decision to do school work). A lot of times I see myself doing this in my faith life too. I often think that doing all my Wesley things are more important than feeding my spirituality alone. It reminds me of the passage Luke 10: 38-42 which reads:
“38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 there is need of only one thing.[a] Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Jesus points out to Martha that she is spending time stressing about the “wrong” thing. And yeah, she thought she was doing the right thing and neither is inherently wrong but she is working so hard that she is not focused on the presence of Jesus, and that’s hard for me too. There’s a quote from a monk (I think) that says, “Sometimes faith is about subtraction rather than addition.” So for example, subtraction could look like subtracting one Wesley event a week or putting a sleep timer on my phone so that I can set apart time for God. The intention is very important and so doing things that kind of force you to spend time could kick-start a habit of setting apart time. So as we continue this semester, think of ways about how can you subtract or even just say no to things so that you can have time intentionally set apart for God’s time. Setting time apart for things that I think are “productive” is so easy but ultimately those things will be taken away, but the presence of Jesus will never be taken away, as a little tie to Ecclesiastes, everything in life is ultimately “meaningless” unless you have an aspect of Jesus in it.
Peace,
Caroline Deck