Vanity of vanities.
I have seen some things under the sun.
I have seen a sink that fills to the brim with dirty dishes
46 times per day. I have done three loads of laundry only to find that every
hamper in the house is still overflowing. I have swept the floor and still found
it covered with crumbs. I have seen 800 socks missing their friends.
Vanity.
I have done e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g I know to do to be on time
and have still spent an entire Tuesday running late. I have cleaned off the countertops one evening and then spent the next day making breakfast and
packing lunches and cooking supper and running into the house to make three
snacks before we go anywhere and gone to bed that night with full
countertops again. I have made breakfast and packed lunches
and cooked supper and run into the house to make three snacks before we go
anywhere and then closed my eyes every time I heard the words “I’m still hungry.”
Chasing after the wind.
I have seen bath time followed by mud pies. I have seen
conversations ending unresolved. Discipline ending without restoration. Effort
poured in, fruit not blooming yet. Shoes and half-sketched pictures on the
floor in every room. 2 hours cleaning out the minivan, and full of coats and
magazines and candy wrappers and leaking water bottles 2 days later.
The sun has risen, and I have seen some things under the
sun. Like my to-do list. Like all the things I didn’t get done the day before,
or all the things I did do that have been undone.
Because it seems like everything I do gets undone.
Laundry. Dishes. Meals. Advice. Correction.
Martha, Martha.
I woke up under the sun and listened.
You are worried and
bothered about so many things..
I know, Lord. But it’s so much. And it all comes undone.
But only one thing
matters…
But I only have ten minutes at most before they wake up,
before the list multiplies. If I don’t get ahead now, I’ll be behind all day.
It is the good part, and
the only thing that will not be taken away…
And that is where I stop.
It will not be taken away?
Everything else comes undone, but sitting at His feet…listening
to Him whisper His truth over me…getting on my knees…pouring out my heart…burying
my face in His word…finding out who He is and who I am…
It won’t be taken away. It infuses all the other things with
meaning. It frees me to serve in the futility of this life with hope. It
corrects my vision.
So when the tasks overwhelm, and the day stretches on, help
me to choose the good part. To trade a few moments of productivity for stillness.
To trust enough to lay down the list and sit at Your feet.
It’s the one thing that won’t come undone.
