Abiding in the Midst of Life

My parents gave me a devo for Easter, "Becoming a Woman Who Walks With God" by Cynthia Heald. Yesterday I read this concerning Mary and Martha in Luke 10:

"Jesus wants us to focus our lives on being with Him rather  than on busying ourselves with doing for Him. He calls us to abide- to sit at His feet and listen to His words. Like Martha, we are called to change our center of attention from ourselves to Jesus. This change enables us to offer service freely, not grudgingly. In fact, when our first priority is abiding, we cannot help but serve the Lord. Mary's heartfelt desire to be with Jesus later prompted her to serve Him by anointing Him with oil. Jesus praised her act and proclaimed that wherever the gospel was preached, it would be remembered (see John 12:1-3). Because Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus, when she did rise to serve Him, her ministry was profound."

What a GOOD WORD. I SO needed this in the midst of life at this moment. As I'm busy cleaning house, doing laundry,  trying to de-germify (like that word?!) from the flu and we're catching up with the business stuff from being sick and Gary's sister in the hospital...(see previous blog)...

I needed to remember that. Even though serving my family is serving Christ and is noble- being WITH Him is so much more important. And if I really want to serve Him by serving them, I need first to be empowered in just resting with Him. Sometimes I get so caught up in all there is to get done, I try too hard in my own strength and end up burnt out. No wonder!

Please continue to pray with us. We got word this morning that Jeanni will be having surgery either today or tomorrow to remove her colon and part of her intestines. They can't wait any longer. She has the worse case of c-diff, an antibiotic induced colotis that has killed her colon. They're worried that if they wait too long, she'll go into septic shock as well as her leukemia coming back full blast. We're trying to decide what we need to do, when we need to go up. Pray we'll rest in Jesus and that the family will know Jesus, that they can rest in Him too.