What an interesting thread we've had today. Time for being with God versus time for doing (what you believe is...) God's work.

The old Mary and Martha story, this struggle is my struggle. I really want Jesus to slap Mary upside the head and tell her to help out her good sister. Instead, he sides with that lazy girl. My own need to control makes me think, sure, that's what Jesus says now, but what happens later when there is no dinner on the table, the disciples are all hungry, and all the cows have gone home. Yet, I also know that Martha's generosity stems in part from her need to feel self important and to believe she is the source of nourishment rather than Jesus.

Many of you know that Becca struggles with depression and this has been a tough week for her. At one point on Tuesday morning, after Rich and I had tried to get her out of bed for almost an hour and failed, we gave up and re-arranged our day so that we could each take a turn at home with her and try to get her to the doctors. As we busied ourselves in the kitchen calling in our reserve plans, Becca hauled herself over to the desk in her bedroom and with the tears running down her face, wrote us a note asking for our forgiveness and saying how sorry she was that she was so sad and that she couldn't do the things that were expected of her. I saw the note as I came in to say good-bye and it near broke my heart. I took the pen out of her hands and wrote below her note that one should never feel responsible for things over which one has no control. Then I took a look at the note and felt myself slapped upside the head as I reread my own words and wondered, who, after all, had I written that note to. If I meant what I had written, it was me who had to realize that this is a child of God, and he will take care of her. Why is that such a hard lesson?