[5 Conversations With Christ] Distractions Sample

Distraction Backfires 

Luke 10:40 says, “But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.”  

She is essentially telling herself, “This isn’t going to be good enough, I want to look better in front of these people. I can’t believe Mary is out there while I’m in here. I’m the older sister. This is my house. What is she doing? She needs to be helping me. I’m always the one who has to do it all.” She’s upset. It's as if she sets the spatula down, walks out to Jesus with her hands on her hips, and emotional leakage comes out.  

Distraction leads to worry, worry leads to being upset, being upset ends up in emotional leakage. Before you know it, you say something you regret. Have you ever said something, and immediately wanted to take it back, but you couldn’t? Then what happens? You win the battle, but you begin losing the war. You say something to your spouse, your kids, your employer, your friend, and that emotional leakage ends up backfiring.  

Sometimes our dysfunction has been a blessing to us; then, it turns on us. You’re busy. You go and go and it’s been a blessing, but now you have an ulcer. Your attitude of “I’ve got to get it done no matter what it costs” has given you success. But you look around and see that you don’t have many friends. People are afraid of you. Emotional leakage. It begins to backfire.  

That’s what Martha found. Let me tell you what, when you go to Jesus and you say, “Lord, don't you care?”, you’d better know what you are talking about. But Jesus says to her, “Martha, Martha.” He loves Martha. He calmly tells her she’s worried about a bunch of things. In a second she realizes how she approached him—and how much he cares.  

Lord, help me to realize how much You care.