"Turn Off Your 'Martha Cell Phone' and Come Away With Me!"

"TURN OFF YOUR 'MARTHA CELL PHONE' AND COME AWAY WITH ME!"

by TOMMY TENNEY
http://www.godchasers.net
 

“What Does It Mean to Be “Cumbered About�?

Too many of us spend our lives choosing and consuming the “second-best things� of life instead of pursuing the “best thing� as Mary did in the bible. Notice that I didn’t say we choose “bad things.� We tend to fill our lives with things that are “good� by most standards—they just aren’t the best things.

My family helped me discover one of my “second-best� choices during a recent holiday season – with Father’s Day coming up this month I felt many dad’s could benefit from this lesson I learned the hard way. The Tenney family is accustomed to its very hectic lifestyle. Everyone knows that when I’m home, I may be expected to attend at least a half-dozen crucial meetings each day and conduct phone conversations with people from around the United States and in other countries. (If I didn’t “multi-task,� I wouldn’t “task� at all.) Lately, I’ve been logging about 3,000 minutes per month on my cell phone!

During a particularly high-stress period, I was rushing through my days and nights so I could take some time off with my family for a few days. The extra crunch just seemed to make things even worse.

I managed to totally frustrate my family. It was so bad that if they could have “kicked me out� temporarily, they would have. Finally, my wife and daughters picked up the phone and called my pastor on me! They contacted this elder statesman of the Body of Christ, the actual pastor that I hold myself accountable to on my board. They basically said, “We want you to do something about our dad. He’s driving us nuts!�

Interrupting Valuable Time

He came to see me and “pastored� me with such kindness that I didn’t even know he had slapped my wrist until he had already gone home. I especially remember one thing he told me, “Do you know what your kids told me is bothering them the most? It isn’t your ministry—they are fine with everything you’re doing.�

I felt better at that point, but I wasn’t ready for what he said next. my pastor said, “Your family said that when you’re with them, you will interrupt those private family times to take a phone call from almost anybody. Yet, you tell the members of your family that their time is valuable.� I knew what he said was true.

It is often the very same thing with God. We tell Him that we value His presence, but if somebody or something else “calls,� we’ll hop up from our position of worship to run off to the “kitchen� of human endeavor or the comfortable regimen of religious effort. Somehow I think He just smiles (like my wife and kids smile at me, perhaps), and every once in a while He will tap us on the shoulder and say, “You’re in sensory overload. Turn off your ‘Martha cell phone’ to the human realm every once in a while. Learn to just get away and spend some time with Me.�


Sometimes you have to turn off one thing to turn on another.

We Make the Same Mistake Martha Made.

When we lack the discipline and discernment to prioritize Divine presence over human performance, we are refusing to release our earthly “loot� to gain God’s best. We make the same mistake Martha made and become what the King James Bible calls “cumbered.�

But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him, and said, Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Sometimes we can get into such sensory overload that we miss those moments of divine visitation or impartation. We get so busy that we forget to choose and pursue the best thing.

Don’t let yourself get caught up in the same mistake I, Martha and Mary all made! Do something now!

Prioritize His presence while at the same time value the company of others in your life!

by TOMMY TENNEY
http://www.godchasers.net

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