Table of Rest

There are a few things the early 2000’s are known for.  I personally rocked the butterfly clips, choker, and Livestrong Bracelet.  I listened to Backstreet Boys AND ‘NSYNC - I know I’m one of the few who couldn’t pick a side. And there was a movie from 2004 I discovered a little later in life...Mean Girls.  There are many lines we like to quote from the movie, but one of the most iconic scenes is when Janis hands Cady (the new girl at school) a diagram of the lunch room. She explains each table, but at the last table (the “Plastics”) she warns Cady to avoid that table.

The next table is not even comparable to the table in Mean Girls, unless you’re comparing apples and oranges, but my brain gets a little like Janis when it thinks of this table - it tells me to avoid the table.

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.”

--Luke 10:38-42

I’ve said this a lot on this blog, but I’ll say it again, I am Martha in this story.  I imagine this scenario often...Martha is frantically trying to throw a meal together.  She’s trying to set the table and her sister is just sitting there. I don’t have siblings, but I would imagine seeing your sister just sitting around as you are running around is frustrating.

But Jesus stops Martha in her tracks.  He tells her that Mary (of all people) is right.  Luke stops writing there. I like to think it’s because he was just as confused as Martha and I. Mary is right? Mary? Martha is busting her rump and Mary is sitting on hers!

I don’t know what really happened, but here is what I believe:  Jesus, then, invited Martha to sit. And He invites me too...and you too.

This table is the table of rest.

Brene Brown (a well-known research professor) says, “We wear busyness as a badge of honor. We’d be afraid of what people would say if we weren’t busy.”  Martha and I like to wear that badge with pride. But the table of rest isn’t about that.

At the table of rest you don’t have to set the table.  You don’t have to clean it off either. You don’t need to prepare a meal or stress over the conversation.  The table isn’t covered in bills and your unfinished taxes (obviously my table isn’t the table of rest).

At the table of rest, you will be filled - even if you didn’t do all these things.  The provision is much, but the effort is little. At the table of rest...all you need to do is sit.  You need to choose to leave everything in the kitchen and just sit.

And so Jesus invites you to take off the plastic, useless badge of honor called busyness.  He invites you to turn off the stove and put the food back in the fridge and simply come. Come and sit a while.  Let Him fill you. Let His crown you with His riches - worth eternally more than some little busyness badge.

I know - I really do - that it’s hard.  It’s an easy table to avoid. But I, also, know how amazing it feels to simply just sit at the table of rest.