Coming to Christ has opened a lot of questions for me surrounding the church. I’ve never been a huge fan of organized religion. Before marriage you’d never find me in a church, in fact since I moved to Florida in 2006 the first time I stepped foot in a church was with my wife sometime in 2011. It just happened to be a Catholic church. It didn’t take long for me to look around and say, “what is going on here?” Everything was methodical and pattern oriented, and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. It seemed a bit cultish if I’m being totally honest. That didn’t stop our attendance, especially after our son was born in June 2011. We thought it important to raise him in the Catholic faith, thus we’ve been attending Mass or watching Mass since 2016 on a pretty regular basis. 

In October 2023 Jesus plucked me from the bottom of a dark pit. He made me new or novo in Latin. I became intrigued with churches, not just the Catholic church. I began dragging my family around here and there to probably a dozen or more different churches over a three-month period. Mostly in the state of Florida but other places as well, such as Nashville, Branson, MO and Louisianna. My wife, being a lifelong Catholic found the non-denominational churches to be a bit odd. I tried to explain, but who was I to do so? I had shunned organized religion my entire life. I would offer placations like, “I know it’s different but let’s keep trying new places.” We found a couple churches we liked. However, we often saw pastors on stage going through the motions, checking off the pastoral check list. 

The fruit of church leaders going through the motions is a church body full of Martha’s. Martha was the sister of Mary and Lazarus, who lived in the village of Bethanny near Jerusalem. Martha opened her home to Jesus and like any woman of the house expecting guests, began preparations. As the day progressed Martha become more and more annoyed, her sister Mary, not the mother of Jesus, was at His feet while He spoke. Martha called out to Jesus, 

40But 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!” 

The next verse in Luke 10:41-42, the last two verses of Luke 10, Jesus responds, 

“41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,42but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” 

I find it truly incredible how one or two verses in the Bible have an ability to completely shift a way of thinking, our worldviews. I have a friend who claimed herself as Martha, not in the church but in her home. Her ability to relate to the story of Martha, how she always had this, that, or the other thing to prepare. She never made time for Jesus and as a result was left thinking only about her to do list, her task list, herself. In the hustle and bustle of life we rarely have time to make God a priority except for maybe one hour a week in church. 

It’s time for a pause when Friday rolls around and we look back upon our week and say to ourselves, “this week was such a blur.”  We are a busy, busy species and we’ve created lives so filled to the brim with activities and tasks that we lose sight of our entire purpose here on Earth, just as Martha did. We pay more attention to what we are ‘supposed’ to do, what society says we are ‘supposed’ to do and what we think those closest to us ‘want’ us to do; rather than what He is guiding us to do. I imagine a lot of Martha’s Fridays felt a bit blurry. 

If you read the Bible, you know that we only have one purpose here on Earth; to follow and be in service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, we check off items on our to-do list Monday through Friday. Saturday is reserved for us, because we deserve it after all, for all our hard work to provide for ourselves, our families and our lifestyles. Not necessarily in that order. On Sundays, if you are a ‘good’ Christian you go to church where you spend an hour dedicated to God. But is it really dedicated to him? Are you going there to glorify Him or to recharge your spiritual batteries? 

Keeping it in the family here, James, Jesus’ half-brother makes it very simple early on in his contribution to the Bible. James 1:22 says:

22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Getting so caught up in life that each week becomes a blur is a sure sign we’ve become like Martha. When worldly priorities overtake Godly priorities it’s time to slow down, pray and read the Bible. What is the point of doing anything if you only do the bare minimum? How can we truly appreciate His Holy presence if we spend less than 1% of our weeks, .89% to be exact with our focus on Him? I’ll go further and say, are you truly focused on the trinity for that one hour? Does your to do list keep cropping back up in your mind? What is “the Martha” in your mind chatting to you about? 

I argue that until we make a solid decision to put Christ first in everything; we will live a blurry life. Each day repetitious, not much different from the previous day, or the day before that. When Christ isn’t first, we aren’t that different from circus animals, held captive to the whims of our master; money and his partner prestige. Like a trained elephant, we perform daily with little change. Working hard to please our master’s we wake up one day and wonder where life has gone, in our minds it’s flown by in a blur. Life described by Jesus in the book of Mathew chapter 7 sums it up quite nicely. 

Matthew 7:13-14: 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

We have choices in life. It’s simple. Am I going to live my life the way I want to live or am I going to live my life for Him and follow His way? He is the way, the truth and the life after all (John 14:6). Our life isn’t really our life at all, the sooner we realize that the sooner we find freedom from the chains of this world. We can pretend we are in control of our lives, but the only thing we control is our actions and beliefs.  As an example, I was in control of my outward appearance and in my interpretation, I was in full control of my life. In reality, I was only in control of what I wanted others to think of me. Even that, in retrospect, was a false reality. The outside of my cup was sparkling clean, but the inside of my cup was crusty. 

Something I enjoyed doing while going from church to church is turning around and looking at the faces of the people behind me. Some, mostly those in the front were engaged. Taking the words from the sermon and actively receiving them into themselves. Thinking about how they can implement what is being taught. The majority, however, were simply there to check a box, maybe not even for themselves, but for their spouse. Blank stares staring back at me with the reflection of Martha, not Jesus. 

Is it religion from religious people that has everyone on the assembly line that is life? I am not sure, but I think a bigger problem is the majority has no idea they are reflecting Martha. A pastor asked the following question to a group not that long ago, “what makes a church successful?” The answers were all over place and I admit the answer can be a bit complicated depending on the metric being used to measure success. I can tell you for certain, membership numbers and finances have nothing to do with it. The number of baptisms? Nope. The number of people with hands raised during worship? Nope. Feeling comfortable and familiar? Nope. Remembering your name? Nope. The number of smiles welcoming you through the doors? Nope. These are all worldly measuring sticks that man likes to use. 

I contend that a successful church is one where the body is following Jesus in everything that they do, thus creating disciples. The recipe for a church to create said disciples is for another article, number one on that list, however, is faithfulness to scripture. I mention that here because it’s also the main ingredient for His success in us. 

Back to James 1:22, where James makes it super simple, just do what the bible says. But to do that, you must read it. Make reading the bible a daily habit, look at tithing a bit differently than you’ve been taught. What lessons are you to gain by giving 10% of your income to a church where you spend .89% of your time focused on Jesus? That is a scale hard to balance. An action bound to raise resentment, especially if you are in control of your life. I posit tithing your time to Jesus, just one measly percent of your time each day. I’ve already done the math, put your calculators away, it’s basically 15 minutes per day. 

One percent each day given to Jesus, especially first thing upon waking will pay far more dividends than going to church once a week. Taking that time to acknowledge His Spirit in us, learning to listen to Him and trusting in His guidance is how we all can live. Living takes place in each moment and living with love in each moment is how we can have life. Living with love is how we live with Jesus inside us. Meeting every obstacle with patience and every person with kindness. Spreading joy and goodness to all around us while being faithful to His word and life inside us. Being gentle when confronted with hardness and having the self-control needed to remain in love, when confronted with hate. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Going to church isn’t going to magically infuse you with the fruit of the spirit. It requires daily focus on humility and consumption of His word. It’s understanding that God didn’t put us here to make money and live life to our fullest. He put us here to serve Him, to lift Him up and spread the good news. To live life to the fullest is to become best friends with Jesus. To have ongoing conversations with Him every day. It’s relying on Him when everyone else has let you down, including yourself. It’s a movement from chaos to order. 1 Corinthians 14:33:

33For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.

We must understand being a Christian is an action that requires movement and change. We move from justification to sanctification, a lifelong, sometimes grueling process. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but like all subjects in a principality we must serve our masters. The formula is included in each verse I’ve shared. It can be summarized by saying you won’t find Jesus in a church; you will find Him by reading the Bible and doing what it says. Choosing the Truth, and the narrow path in every choice, hundreds of times a day. In doing so, He gifts us the fruit of the spirit and with time the chaos of our lives will find order through His life in us. Be like Mary, choose what is better (the word) and it (life) won’t be taken from you. Become a reflection of Jesus, not a reflection of Martha.