Nope, you can relax. You’re not gonna hear a lecture on what you eat or drink – or how much you exercise — over the coming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays!
Whew! You can read on…
As most of you know already, I rotate the focus of my blogs around the 3 topics involved in my business titled Journey Well: Heart Body & Soul. And this blog today was slated to be focused on the body.
When I originally tried to identify how I wanted to serve people, I thought my areas of experience and training were so divergent that I would just pick one and go with it. I hired an expert to help me with the labeling & vision – thankfully, she was a Christian.
She heard the lawyer stuff, the life-saving natural health supplement story, and the 25+ years of hobby/side-hustle coaching on & creating photobooks which also included genealogy work.
She did not envision multiple octopus arms waving around wildly as I did. Instead, we worked our way to scripture – the one the Lord had underlined for me during this exploration time. Deuteronomy 6:5 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
We recognized it was about the Journey – especially for folks going from mid-life and beyond, like me. That journey centered on loving God with our total being – heart, body & soul.
I chose the word “body” instead of strength. Why? Because as I searched the scriptures about “strength” and “might”, the two words that got interchanged in several similar verses, I realized the Bible talks about our strength in Christ in very physical ways:
- Empowering Gideon’s small army to win the battle (Judges 7)
- Putting on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-11)
- Soaring on wings like eagles, running and not growing weary, walking and not fainting (Isaiah 40:31)
So my “body” topics are usually health and physical body related. But this time as I asked what blog topic fit – yes, I pray about it, but so far, the Lord has not written the full blog for me. Oh, darn. He just gives me hints, drops scripture and devotional readings in place at the right time, and sends messages through some of my friends & experiences. OK, I am good with that!
He reminded me of my statements in my website. Our lives are complex and multifaceted – they are a uniquely designed tapestry of experience so that when you bring healing to one area of your life, it begins to spill over and improve all the rest!
So, as I kept reminding Him this was about the body, he inspired me with a bible story that has always bothered me. But I didn’t think it had anything to do with the body.
It is the story of Martha and Mary – here’s the scripture from Luke 10:38-42:
While they were traveling, He entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.”
The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”
OK, all you “Martha’s” out there – I relate!! While Jesus’ rebuke was “mild” (saying Martha twice was like saying ‘my dear Martha’), it still felt like a disparagement of the industrious sister. I wanted to put my hand on my hip and say, “Well, how do you think the dinner is going to get cooked, plated and served if all of us just sit around the feet of Jesus listening to whatever he is saying? I’ll just plop right down here and let the food stay in the kitchen and get cold – how about that?”
Yes, I get the point of the story – the formalities of a relationship with Jesus – things like serving dinner – must never take the place of a vital and personal relationship with the Lord. The social contact and physical work cannot replace serious attention to his teaching. I agree – and it is true.
So why was I getting this story presented to me at this time – the holidays looming? It struck me as I read Blackaby’s devotional on this story.
He said “It is good to want to serve Christ….Yet when your activity consumes your time and energies so that you have no time for Him, you have become too busy!” Ooops, trigger words for me – “too busy”.
Where have I been spending a lot of research, planning, thinking time lately? Some of you who plan earlier than I do have already been trotting down this path.
Planning the meal for Thanksgiving, texting and emailing about the details with all involved, trying to figure out what Christmas presents need to be ordered & created & considered, getting the Operation Christmas Child boxes filled, setting up things for a Christmas event at my church – busy, busy, busy!
The impact on my body? …my health? …my strength? Stress and overwhelm abound as I have once again packed too much into the time period that also encompasses the Thanksgiving & Christmas extras one would think I would have recognized come around at this time of year. And that depletes my sleep time, expends extra energy I don’t have to spare, and the wear on my physical health really does impact how I move through my days. Impatience, anyone?
You see where this is going? The “body” message the Lord had for me to share is important to consider during these holidays. Our physical health which impacts mental health and relationships is important. And we “Martha’s” tend to hit the “danger zone” more quickly than the “Mary’s” — but trust me, they can get there, too.
So, let me give you the freedom Blackaby helped me realize the Lord gave us. While Jesus taught that our highest priority must be our relationship with Him – “God will not ask you to do something that hinders your relationship with Christ” says Blackaby.
Gotta love Blackaby for this – he says “We are not called to continually sit at the feet of Jesus; otherwise our service for Him would cease.” Hurray! Someone recognizes the value of the food-preparers!
Yet he adds, “Neither are we called to serve Him incessantly, without taking time to find restoration in His presence.” And that, my friends, is why He led me to this body blog being about taking care of your body during these busy, busy, busy holidays (holy days) coming up.
And how do we take care of our body? By recognizing and regulating our “serving God diligently” activities so that we have time to spend with Him – quiet and reflective time. Restorative time.You now have permission to give as much time & effort to those restorative “Mary” moments as you do to the serving “Martha” moments over the next weeks of holidays. Balance is your friend.
