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But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42

In this pandemic season, a lot of activities have been put to a halt. No matter whether one chooses to slow down or not, these past three months have definitely formed a time of stillness in our lives. It gave us an opportunity to reflect on the many activities that we have tried to fill up in our schedules until everything has stopped.

Even for the activities that we tried to 'do' thinking it may please the Lord, like Martha, Luke described it to be distracting sometimes. Instead of solely enjoying the presence of God, there may be a lot of activities that we think the Lord requires of us, but instead, a sense of anxiety and worry may have built up and we started relying on those activities and stopped enjoying God Himself.

But God is faithful, He cares for us as much He cares for Martha in telling her what is the thing that is most necessary. The one thing that Mary has chosen is to sit by the Lord and listen to His words. Jesus has also promised that this 'good portion' will never be taken away from us. David, a man after God's own heart, in Psalms also showed us the one thing that we know we all wanted deep down in our souls: One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Psalm 27:4-5

As situations in our city are easing, there is a sense that everyone is waiting for things to go back to 'normal', whatever that may look like. But during this time of stillness, I pray that we do not waste this opportunity and approach God to ask the honest prayer like Martha, and He will answer us graciously in what are the many things we have been doing that have blocked us from choosing the one thing He has called us to do. May the new normal be less doing ‘many things,' and more ‘gazing upon the beauty of the Lord.'

Let us pray One Thing by:

• Thanking Father God for His loving promise that solely being in His presence is enough and will not be taken away from us.
• Ask Him to lead you to enjoy alone moments with Him especially as city is going back to normal and with your tendency to fill your schedule with secondary things.