Last week my thoughts had turned to Mary and Martha, focusing on our need to make better choices in balancing our time. You can read this post HERE.
As familiar as the story may be to all of us, I kept returning to read the account repeatedly. I began to wonder what more was I to take note of, so I returned to Luke 10:40-42.
Martha, distracted by all she had to do, comes to Jesus and asks,
“Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to serve alone?
So tell her to give me a hand.”
(verse 10, HCSB)
Martha’s nose was a little out of joint as she felt she was doing all the work while Mary did nothing.
The verse brought to mind the word, “complaining.” Mary was complaining to Jesus about Mary.
Complaining as defined by the dictionary is: “to express grief, pain, or discontent; to make a formal accusation or charge” (from The Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
Martha was complaining but … she knew where to take her complaint.
Scripture gives us no record of Martha saying anything to any of the disciples, nor to Mary herself.
Luke, the author who penned these words, was a doctor who paid close attention to details. It is unlikely he would have missed had Martha been voicing her issue, her complaint, to others. He would recorded every detail.
Realizing this, it begs the question: “Where are we to take our complaints?
Scripture provides the answer:
“I pour out my complaint before Him;
I declare my trouble before Him.”
(Psalm 142:2, NASB)
“I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost.
There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint.”
(Habakkuk 2:1, NLT)
Martha lodged her complaint to the only One who could change or address the situation. Our complaints are safest when we place them in the hands of our most capable Lord.
May we bring our complaints to the Lord,
and then,
wait to see how He will respond.
Reflection:
Our complaints are safest in the hands of the Lord.Why do you think we voice them in other places?
Photo by Olivia Snow on Unsplash
What eye-opening insight - if I were to write a book (which I'm not) about what I wish my mother had taught me about what to take to Jesus - this would be in the top five! I was in my 30s when I realized that - and I'm still breaking "muscle memory" for those bad habits while trying to create healthier "muscle memory" for this. Soooo good, Joanne!!!
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