I did my undergrad back when research was done in the library, dial-up Internet was the norm, and papers were typed in the computer lab. Information wasn’t at our fingertips, and sending a text still required you to hit one letter multiple times to reach the letter you needed for the word you were trying to send. Laptops, high speed Internet, and smart phones really were life-changing. Then came social media, and honestly that was pretty helpful, too. It gave me a way to talk to my husband while he was deployed and let me stay connected to friends when I started moving around the country. It was also the first time I’d ever been that exposed to the comparison game. Any elder millennial who’s ever lived through the MySpace friend-ranking era knows the comparison game can get brutal. All of a sudden, social media showed us the up-close and glossed-over version of other people’s lives, and it made ours seem a little less exciting. A living room was no longer just a place to hang out. It became an aesthetic moment for a post, and “keeping up with the Joneses” took on a whole new meaning.  

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Watching this evolution happen in real time, I can say that, despite the downsides, there’s been a lot of good to come from these advances, too. It’s actually really convenient to have a way to connect with people you can’t see every day. It’s helpful to be able to look something up in a matter of seconds, and it’s nice to be able to send a quick text, schedule an appointment via mobile options or get directions without having to print them off Mapquest. The problem isn’t the access itself. The problem begins when access begins to steal our attention from reality – when distraction leads us into comparison and grumbling, and we lose sight of what truly matters.

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That’s where we find Martha – distracted and grumbling. She may not have had social media, but she had her own pressures. Because of the era in which she lived, she probably shouldered the weight of running the domestic side of the home and cooking; cleaning and welcoming in visitors was part of that role. It seems like Martha’s intention was to give Jesus and the disciples a welcoming atmosphere. The Bible is very clear that hospitality is a valuable attribute in the life of a believer, so we know she wasn’t doing anything inherently wrong by making dinner. Her intention was well-placed – to serve Jesus and meet a perceived need – but she was distracted, worried, and upset to the point of complaining about it to Jesus (Luke 10:40-41). The shift in Martha’s focus – from serving to complaining – distorted her intention. She allowed herself to become so busy doing something for Jesus that she neglected being with Jesus. Martha had a distracted heart, and Jesus redirected her attention to what really mattered in the moment.

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Martha gets a lot of heat for this, but what happened here is the same thing that happens to us, too. We can also find ourselves so busy doing good things, even serving God, that we sacrifice time spent investing in our relationship with Him. Like Martha, our intentions aren’t necessarily wrong. We just need to be redirected towards what truly matters. Please don’t misunderstand me – it is good and worthwhile to accomplish things. We were made to work, to create, and to add beauty and goodness to this world, but our attention is sacred. When we don’t take time to abide in Christ, our attention is turned away from the most important thing. We miss out on the very relationship that breathes life into everything else we do. Jesus doesn’t condemn Martha or say what she was doing didn’t matter. He simply corrected her priorities and reminded her that those things weren’t the thing to be concerned about.

Have we, like Martha, become so distracted in our pursuit of good things that we overlook the best thing? The distractions of life, even the best ones, are always trying to pull us away from the most important thing. Choosing Jesus always requires intention. There will always be something else to do. There will always be apps or feeds filled with ways we could compare ourselves or alter our perception of what makes us valuable, but there’s only one Jesus, and He’s waiting for an invitation to spend time with you. What are you missing when you’re distracted, worried or upset? That might be the very thing Jesus is trying to re-prioritize in your life. You have inherent value because you are a child of God. No amount of scrolling, comparing, doing, or serving changes that reality.  

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If you’d like to, I invite you to pray this with me today:

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Father, in a world that constantly demands my attention, teach me to recognize what truly deserves it. Forgive me for the times I’ve been so distracted that I’ve missed your presence, and teach me to sit at your feet, especially in the times I feel pulled away by my endless to-do list. Help me to find my value in you and to not become so busy doing things for you that I forget to simply be with you. In your name, I pray, Amen.