Less is More

By Grant Gaines

Did you ever take a test in school that caught you completely off guard? You thought that you had studied enough, you thought that you were well prepared, and you thought you knew the material that was going to be covered on the test. But as soon as the teacher passed out your examine, your stomach began to turn and your palms began to sweat as you realized that you were not nearly as prepared as you needed to be.

This very thing happened to yours truly in high school. I had made my flashcards, I had highlighted my textbook, and I had reviewed the notes from my class. But as soon as I laid eyes on my test, I thought I was reading a foreign language—not only did I not know what the answers were; I didn’t even know what the questions were asking!

But of course I tried to do my best. I would cross out answers I knew were wrong and would make educated guesses as to which ones were right. As I was frantically scribbling down my answers, something caught my eyes in the instructions at the top of the page. Under the typical, “Use a #2 pencil, write clearly, and no cheating” was one final instruction that changed the entire game. This instruction read, “Please sign your name at the bottom of the page and put your pencil down. DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS.”

My teacher wanted to see how many of her student’s actually read the directions before beginning the test. All we had to do to get a 100% was to sign our name and put our pencils down. That was it! It was as simple as that.

But after I gladly followed these directions with a sigh of relief, I noticed how many of my fellow classmates were still trying to complete the test. They were scratching their head, wrinkling their brow, and chewing on their fingernails as they did everything they could to pass the test. In their attempt to please the teacher, their effort actually worked against them. All the teacher wanted was for her pupils to set their pencils down and do nothing.

You know, sometimes I think God wants us to do the same? Sometimes instead of working longer or harder, the best way we can please our Teacher is to do nothing other than enjoy who He is. Isn’t that the takeaway from the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10?

While Martha was busy preparing food for Jesus, her sister Mary was just sitting at His feet.

“What is my sister doing?” Martha must have asked herself. “While she’s in there doing nothing, I’m in here serving the Savior. I’m making a meal for the Messiah. I’m preparing dinner for the Deliverer. If only that girl had some common sense, she would realize the opportunity that we have before us right now. We get to serve Jesus!”

“But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to You that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me’” (Luke 10:40, NLT). Martha surly expected Jesus to be on her side on this one. After all, she was serving Him.

But much to Martha’s surprise, Jesus responded to her self-promoting question by saying, “…My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42, NLT).

Martha was doing all she could to please the Teacher when all He wanted was her attention. Martha kept adding more and more things to her “plate”, if you will, to make Jesus happy when all she really needed to do was to set down the cooking utensils and sit at Jesus’ feet.

What’s your “utensil” that you need to put down so you can be better focused on God? For you it may mean dropping out of a Bible study, dropping a responsibility at church, or dropping one of the many books you are reading to focus on one Book—the Bible. It may sound strange to read a Christian blog that is encouraging you to drop a duty, but as the story of Mary and Martha showed us today, sometimes divine duties can over time become diluting distractions.

Sometimes the biggest hindrance towards your relationship with Christ is not your inactivity but your over-activity. Sometimes the cure for a spiritual drought is not to do more, but to do less. Sometimes God doesn’t want a sacrifice of money, time, or energy, but a sacrifice of your heart and attention (Psalms 40:6-8).

God is the one thing that matters, without Him there would be no duty worth doing. Don’t let your ministry become your Master.

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©Grant Gaines 2013