one thing

Photographed by Garrett Randolph

“But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’”

-Luke 10:41-42

The Hebrew word for “anxious” in this Scripture is merimnao. It means to be drawn in opposite directions, divided into parts, to be pulled apart, or distracted.

There once was an incredibly thirsty man sitting beside a well with fresh water. He needed a drink badly so he started to draw up the bucket, however he realized—he didn’t have a cup! That was the only socially acceptable way to drink it around here. In fact, across from him was a woman dunking her head in the bucket and the pouring it over her head to get as much water as possible.

“She is from a different world!” he thought.

Embarrassed for her and looking the other way, he head out to retrieve a cup and come back with speed. On the way he noticed his dry skin. So he took a detour to get some lotion to prevent his skin from cracking. While he was applying lotion to his dry skin, he started to research remedies to clear his headache that was coming on. While he wrote out a list of all the things you can do to help his headache, he noticed his hand was moving slowly and his joints are achy from standing.

“A lot of time has passed and I haven’t been very active. I must be getting weak”, he thought.

In fear of losing his strength, he then went for a run. At the end of the run, his thirst was so overwhelming that he remembered—the well! Even in his dire need, he just could not picture himself guzzling water directly from the bucket. Everyone would think he is an insane dog! As he continued on the journey for a cup to hold the water, confusion started setting in. Eventually, he passed out onto the ground with severe dehydration.

He awakes with his face in a puddle— water on the ground touching his lips. The girl from the well had found him and poured just enough water from the bucket around his face so that it would touch his mouth and skin. His eyes are not open, but he starts to sip the water. He can feel his body and mind coming back again. She kept pouring him water until he regained his strength to stand back up. They walked together back to the well, where he took his first drink directly from the bucket and was never the same. Never once did he wish he had a cup or care what others thought of him. There was only one thing necessary—to drink.

Sometimes we think coming to Jesus needs to look a certain way. We think about what other people do, how others talk about their time with God, or maybe we just can’t seem to shake the comfort of what we are used to. We want Him, but we need “a cup” to drink Him from. In being focused on the method of being with God, we get lost—pulled in different directions. Distracted. Anxious. Worried. Preoccupied with many things that relate to water, but are not actually drinking it.

We get pulled apart by finding bandaids to put on our symptoms of dehydration instead of coming to God who is the hydration.

Sometimes coming directly to God, can look undignified. It can be messy. And it should be desperate. Because we need Him. Drinking from His river of living water and spending time with Him is THE thing. Feeling pressured for your time with God to look a certain way can get you distracted from drinking His water.

He loves us so much that He has offered us His authentic self as the gift of life. All He wants is your authentic self. Come into His Presence with no plan or expectations of what drinking from His well looks like. The important thing is that you drink. When you allow Him to shower His water over you, all of the sudden, it is like you are a child in a sprinkler again—running free and taking a sip every chance you get.

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

-Matthew 26:6-13