Beholding and Becoming: The Art of Everyday Worship by Ruth Chou Simons is a beautiful exploration of beholding God in worship and becoming more like Him in daily life. Here are two excerpts (pgs. 196 & 199) from this book:
Perhaps, like Martha, in our task-mindedness, we forget that rest — ceasing from work and being still before the Lord — is not a luxury; rest is productive.
How often I look at the mess in my home…and roll my eyes at the idea of rest… But God Himself, who rested after six days of creating the heavens and the earth, didn’t set the example for rest to simply give us a break but rather to be our rest.
Like Martha, we spin and toil anxiously over “many things,” and often forget to choose the portion that is most necessary. We think if a luxury to rest because we think everything depends on us. The Martha mindset puts my own abilities and resources on center stage, but a Mary posture looks to Jesus.
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In our present cultural glorification of busy, we can choose to see our to-do lists, calendars, and schedules differently. It’s not that Jesus didn’t expect work to be done, meals to be made, and tables to be set; He simply called Martha to recognize opportunity for best in the midst of all that was good. All work, no matter how needed and useful, becomes anxious toiling if not fueled by our most-needed sustenance: rest in the Lord.
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