Misplaced Priorities

Haggai 1: 5-6 Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you cloth yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.

Luke 10: 41-42 But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need for only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

In the scripture from Haggai, the Lord is pointing out the lack of satisfaction in the lives of those who are neglecting Him. In the passage from Luke, Jesus is pointing out to Martha that she is distracted by trivialities. If we place our priorities on the wrong things, they cannot provide us with what we are looking for.

The Lord said, "For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.", but easier softer ways seem to turn up everywhere. Shiny trinkets that offer instant gratification beckon to me constantly. These temptations do not lead to life however. By the time I realize my mistake I might be very far off the mark. In the passage from Haggai, the Lord was addressing people who new that something was wrong. They were going hard and getting nowhere. The fruit of their labor was hollow and unsatisfying. Their priorities had gone wrong and they eventually found themselves on a tedious dead end road. They had stopped looking to God to provide their direction and had struck out on their own. I've tried that as well. It seems easy enough; to navigate successfully through life by our own means. Is it though? I've come to believe it to be an illusion. We compare our insides to other peoples outsides. The people around us seem happy, successful and like they have it all together. To this we compare the hollowness that fills our soul. We compare what they want us to see with what we can't ignore about ourselves. They are trapped in the same illusion. We share the feeling that something isn't quite right with us but try to hide this fear from others. Martha was striving to keep up the front that she was the "hostess with the mostest". It is what she did and she felt that it was important. It angered her when Mary left her to do all the work alone. Jesus told her that it was Mary who was attending to the important thing though. The only thing. Him. God. Truth. Life. If we, like Mary, put aside our distractions and listen intently to God as He speaks to us, the rest falls into place. It is so easy to become distracted and to lose my way. It serves me well to look at what provides my direction. I cannot get where I want to be if I am not heading in the right direction.

Father God, I pray that I might keep my focus on You and my heart tuned to You for You are the truth and the light and the way. Amen.