Choosing what is better

Today at church the scripture was the story of Mary and Martha, found in Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

As this scripture was read in church this morning, I found myself thinking of it in relation to work mission.  See, in years past, I tended to be the person who kept working when the homeowner came by, but this year, I stopped and took time to talk.  One of the jobs that I was on was a house that had been stalled in the process of being built.  E.M. and her husband had run out of money in the process of building their house, and progress had been stalled for more than 5 years.  In addition, some of the work that had been done had been ruined by vandals.  This is what the house looked like when we got there:

As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done.  And honestly, when we arrived at the house and saw the amount of work to be done, I wondered if it was worth the time, money and effort that would be put into it.  There was no way we were going to finish this job.  There was simply too much to be done.  And I wondered if our resources wouldn't be better spent on a job that we could finish.  

But all that was before I met E.M.  When E.M. arrived at the house Tuesday morning before we went to lunch, we had hung the majority of the insulation, and carried in the drywall to be hung later in the day.  When E,M. saw that the house was finally moving forward, the tears began to flow.  Over and over she kept praising God for what we were doing for her.  She told me how she had been praying for a way to get this project started again.  She told me how she volunteered a lot at the senior center and did all she could for the seniors there, never asking for anything for herself.  And she told me how much it meant to her when Annie and Mr. Knox (the people who coordinate to find projects for us) thought of her and introduced her to Bob and Kathy.  At that point I realized that even though there was no way we could finish this project, it was worth it.  We were giving her hope again that her dream house was possible.  This is E.M.with some of the teens that day she first saw the progress on her house.

E.M. and the youth

I was only on this job through Wednesday morning, and when E.M. came by that day, she told me how she had once worked for someone who had a dining room that could seat 24 people, and how she dreamed of that for her house because she had so many kids, grandkids, and great grandkids to have over.  By the end of the week the exterior walls had been insulated, the inspection had been done, and most of the drywalling had been done as well as insulating some of the interior walls.  

 Master bedroom

 The dining room

Pastor Mike said in his sermon this morning, "Often we miss what is important by doing what is urgent."  I wanted to do that on work mission, and I frequently do that in my life.  This experience with E.M. reminded me that the work is less important than the people.  That doesn't mean the work isn't important - obviously the work that we did was important to E.M.  But the work didn't mean much to me until I took time to talk to her and hear her story.  

Busyness tends to get us focused on tasks instead of people, but the people are what make the tasks worthwhile.  A reminder that we all need now and again... thank you E.M.!