By Hultner Estrada
How busy is “too busy”? How many businesses or ministries should we be involved with? Is it possible that being involved with too many good things is a bad thing?
These and other questions came up to surface during the first devotional service in 2013 which celebrated the Nehemiah Center staff. The reflection on this day brought a call from the Lord, especially for those who enjoyed the action, the occupation, the constant work.
With the help of Pastor Ricardo Hernandez, we visited the text of Luke 10:38-41, a passage that recounts Jesus’ visit to a woman named Martha, in the village of Bethany. According to the story, Martha was busy with many things while her sister Mary sat at the Master’s feet to listen. Marta then complained to Jesus saying, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me alone with all the chores? Tell her to help me.” The Master answered Martha with these words: “Martha, Martha, “you are worried and upset about many
things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-41 NVI).
“I grew up working,” Pastor Hernandez said, “as a child I worked hand making paper bags for the small shop that my dad had. I like to be busy, so this passage in which Jesus takes the side of Mary calls my attention”, he added.
Is there something wrong with being busy? “God put us in this material world where we need to work to eat and to develop ourselves, the problem is the lack of balance”, said brother Ricardo. “It takes work, but we need to cultivate our fellowship with God, that is the part-Jesus said- that will not be taken away from us.”
“With the exception of our communion with the Creator, one day, everything else will be taken away from us, it will leave us, or we will have to give it back,” said the pastor. “Health is going over the years, the children will leave our home, we will deliver the jobs we love, one day we will have to give up many things precious, even we will have to return our life. The only thing we never be taken away is our fellowship with the Lord, that will last all eternity, “he said.
Nehemiah Center staff was challenged by the Lord that in this New Year we invest more time in cultivating our fellowship with Him, that we work with the awareness that temporal things cannot have the priority. After all, giving our life for things that sooner or later we will lose, it’s not life. The fullness of life consists in knowing the true God and His Son Jesus Christ, and that under his guidance and company enjoy the work that He has delegated to us here on earth.