Walk with Jesus with a lightly held to-do list.

Martha had a programmed faith as seen by the fact that she couldn’t sit still. She was so stressed over getting things done that her face was contorted in anger (‘distracted’).

Mary had a possessive faith that allowed to get what “needed to be done” and then sat at Jesus’ feet with a face of wonder and contentment.

Martha was so busy with her to-do lists of food preparation that when she couldn’t get it all done, wham, she confronted Jesus about it. “You don’t care about me!”

She verbally threw up all over Him because she was carrying around a list so long that she forgot why the food was even necessary in the first place, Jesus her guest.

Mary, on the other hand, was caught between two worlds and finally chose to possess her faith and sit. The phrase “left me to do the work” shows that Mary was struggling between the job of hosting with the purpose of hosting. She kept running back and forth between helping her sister and being with and listening to Jesus that she finally sat and just listened.

A programmed faith means there are things one must do in order to be with and please God. Yet, it forgets that Jesus already met the standard of what needed to be done to be brought into God’s presence in the first place.

A programmed faith creates its own to-do list of things to be done each day, which over time leads to frustration, just like it did for Martha until she made it Jesus’ fault. Programmed faith leaves you exhausted because there is always more to done or at least feels like God demands more.

A possessive faith is not about the list! It’s doing what He’s told you do while being with Him as you do whatever He’s told you to do. And guess what? He can add or subtract from that list and take you on all kinds of unexpected turns, like sitting at His feet.

Why? Because it’s not about the list, but the Creator of the List – Jesus. It’s about listening to and following Him to places and people that you never expected to go that bring a sense of excitement, not frustration and rejuvenation not exhaustion.