People usually assume that the sisters in question are the same Mary and Martha who are sisters to Lazarus. There is only one problem with this assumption, and that is that the siblings so named - Mary, Martha, and Lazarus - appear only in the gospel of John (John 11-12). Lazarus appears in a parable in Luke 16:19-31, but that passage does not mention the sisters. On one level, the geography surrounding this story presents a problem for connecting these sisters with the sisters of Lazarus in John. Most of the action of Luke's gospel takes place during a long journey Jesus is making from Galilee to Jerusalem, which begins in 9:51 and ends at 19:27. The sisters named Mary and Martha in chapter 10, then, should live in Galilee because Jesus' journey has just started. In fact, Jesus still is in Galilee in chapter 13, where some Jewish leaders come to warn him to leave before Herod succeeds in having him killed. People often assume that the Herod in question is Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee. However, if these sisters do live in Galilee, they are not the same Mary and Martha who are Lazarus' sisters, because that family, according to John, lives in Bethany, which is just outside Jerusalem. The fact also remains that that story does not mention Lazarus; and Mary and Martha were certainly common enough names during this period for there to have been more than one pair of sisters with those names.
Early and medieval churches saw this text as showing the primacy of the contemplative over the active life of faith. Even Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica offered the question of whether one finely divides life into active and contemplative. He concludes that one properly does.
Article 2. Whether life is adequately divided into active and contemplative?
Objection 1. It would seem that life is not adequately divided into active and contemplative. For the Philosopher says (Ethic. i, 5) that there are three most prominent kinds of life, the life of "pleasure," the "civil" which would seem to be the same as the active, and the "contemplative" life. Therefore the division of life into active and contemplative would seem to be inadequate.
Objection 2. Further, Augustine (De Civ. Dei xix, 1, 2, 3, 19) mentions three kinds of life, namely the life of "leisure" which pertains to the contemplative, the "busy" life which pertains to the active, and a third "composed of both." Therefore it would seem that life is inadequately divided into active and contemplative.
Objection 3. Further, man's life is diversified according to the divers actions in which men are occupied. Now there are more than two occupations of human actions. Therefore it would seem that life should be divided into more kinds than the active and the contemplative.
On the contrary, these two lives are signified by the two wives of Jacob: the active by Lia,[Leah] and the contemplative by Rachel; and by the two hostesses of our Lord: the contemplative life by Mary, and the active life by Martha, as Gregory declares (Moral. vi, 37 [Hom. xiv in Ezech.]). Now this signification would not be fitting if there were more than two lives. Therefore life is adequately divided into active and contemplative.
It is hard for those in our contemporary church to read the story of Mary and Martha without faulting Martha. Yet, Martha is doing exactly what the ancient world expected of a hostess. The words Luke uses to describe her initial behavior are overwhelmingly positive. Why then does Jesus not commend her arduous work and remind Mary of her place? Luke’s gospel is keenly aware of timing. There is a sense of urgency that runs throughout the narrative — a sense that now is the time of action. Salvation must come today (13:11-17; 19:1-10). This urgency demands a reconfiguration of what one expects and a recognition of Jesus’ role in God’s overall plan of salvation.
This text is a gracious inclusion by Jesus of women as full participants in theological reflection and as a courageous reception by Martha of this potentially troubling rabbi, Jesus. This is not simply a moralistic example story in which urges exemplary behavior. It is a story about Jesus, revealing something about him and the way he graciously, sometimes riskily intrudes into our lives.
Issues of women's studies and women's history have brought other matters to attention. Those who read this segment as evidence of Jesus' acceptance of women point to several surprising facets in the story. First, Martha is clearly depicted here as the formal head of her household. Second, the focus of the story now shifts to Mary. Here, the defenders of Jesus' radical acceptance of women grow quite excited - Mary appears as one whom the Lord teaches.
The truth is, we are still ignorant about what kinds of roles and attitudes prevailed within the homes of the common, faithful Jews of the first century. Whether women were accorded the opportunity for education, and if so, how much, remains an unknown. It also appears from the context of this story that neither Martha nor Mary was married. It could be that as widowed or unmarried women, Martha and Mary enjoyed a less-structured or defined role in first-century society - allowing them to drift over the lines of gender-defined roles.
Elizabeth Schusseler-Fiorenza says Luke uses Martha and Mary as examples of two types of women active in the house-churches of his day. Martha is a strong and forceful figure in this story. Luke uses Jesus' gentle reprimand of Martha to undermine this historical development. Jesus insists to the assertive Martha that Mary's way - subordinate, quiet, sitting obediently at his feet, is the more appropriate stance women should take if they want to be his disciples.
It is possible to take exception to both these interpretative tracks by noting that they both shift the focus of this segment away from what Jesus is doing and, instead, concentrate on what Martha and Mary are doing. As part of Luke's journey-motif, this segment is concerned with what Jesus the Lord revealed about being disciples of his world. Mary is acting as another true disciple- one who not only follows Christ but also who knows his words well enough to pass them along as good news to others.
Luke begins this story as he often does by giving us the location of Jesus. In 10:38-42, he is on his way to Jerusalem (9:51). 38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain (unnamed) village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. It is significant that Luke mentions this simple action of Martha. She has received Jesus. Luke uses the same Greek word to describe Zacchaeus’ joyous reception of Jesus in 19:6. Earlier in chapter 10, Jesus has sent out 70 others to go before him and has given them instructions about a household receiving them. For those hosts who receive them, Jesus tells the 70 to grant them peace and to remind the hosts that the kingdom of God has come near (10:1-9). Immediately before our passage, Jesus has reminded the lawyer of the importance of loving your neighbor as yourself (10:25-29) and has recounted the parable of the Good Samaritan, who had compassion for his neighbor and demonstrated hospitality (10:30-37). Jesus ends the parable with the command, “Go and do likewise.” This is the setting in which the reader comes to this brief story of Martha and Mary. Martha has received Jesus into her home. She has offered hospitality. From the previous context, the reader should have a positive view of Martha as an example of someone who has welcomed Jesus. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. In Luke 8, before he begins his journey, when he is first teaching his disciples, Jesus states that the true disciple is the one who lets nothing distract him or her from "hearing the word." In the parable of the one who sows seed, the seeds that fall in good soil (8:15) are those who do not let the distraction of riches and cares dilute their enthusiasm for the gospel. Jesus demonstrates this single-mindedness himself in 8:21, when he refuses to be distracted from his work by the arrival of his own family and states that his true family are those who "hear the word of God and do it." By focusing on Mary's attention to Jesus, the story of the two sisters in Luke 10:38-42 reinforces Jesus' teaching in chapter 8. Unlike Martha, who is distracted by all the things she thinks she must do to be a good hostess to Jesus, Mary understands that it is more important to pay close attention to Jesus' teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks (much service). Thus, Marth is remarkably busy. Now, service itself is not a terrible thing in Luke-Acts. The word for service diakonia is the word from which we get deacons — those who serve the church (see Acts 6). She is not distracted doing work for herself. She is distracted in her service of others. The text only says that Jesus came to this house, but in Luke’s gospel Jesus often travels with an entourage. With a group of visitors, there is much service to do, and Martha is frantically filling that role. So she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Out of desperation, Martha appeals to Jesus to help her sister recognize her place in the household. Her address to him as “Lord” is significant. In Luke’s gospel that indicates that she knows who Jesus is (Compare with the lawyer in 10:25 and the spies in 20:21 who address Jesus as “teacher.” These characters clearly do not grasp who Jesus is and are not willing to follow him). Tell her then to help me.” The plea of Martha seems focused upon herself. She recognizes the importance of serving her guests, and she is frustrated with her sister for sitting around on the floor when she could be helping. It was Mary’s duty to serve. Ironically, Martha may be trying to exemplify the type of servant lifestyle that Jesus says he desires in his disciples, but her aggravation with Mary reveals that she has not yet gotten the full picture of what that type of servant life should be like. It is one thing to serve others voluntarily. However, Martha was not willing to serve her sister along with Jesus. We need to note the pun Luke in Greek uses in telling the story in verses 41-2. 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. Clearly, the response of Jesus offers no relief for weary Martha. He addresses her by repeating her name twice. Luke will use this same type of address in Luke 22:31 to address Simon Peter in Jesus’ forewarning of Peter’s denial. Just as Peter does not grasp who Jesus is and the magnitude of Jesus’ life and death, Martha does not grasp the magnitude of his visit on his way to Jerusalem. Martha is so concerned to go about the service of hospitality that she has failed to see truly the importance of her guest and his timely arrival. Jesus told a story, just two chapters earlier in the gospel of Luke, about what happens when a seed — representing the word of God — falls among thorns. In that case, the fruit of the seed cannot mature, because the thorny people are preoccupied with “the cares and riches and pleasures of life” (8:14). Poor Martha, as hard working as she is, is a thorn. Although she is fulfilling her social obligations, she is allowing her duties to distract her from hearing God’s word. In this situation, she simply does not have her priorities straight. 42 There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, a word commonly used to describe dishes of food. Therefore, by telling Martha that Mary has chosen a better "portion" while she is in the kitchen trying to prepare many different "portions" when only one is necessary, Jesus is simultaneously hinting that Martha could simplify the meal so that she can prioritize her life as Mary has. Only one thing is necessary at that moment - namely, to hear Jesus' words. As Jesus will emphasize later in the gospel, he is more interested in serving others than in having others serve him (Luke 12:37; 22:27). Jesus stresses that the better portion will not be taken away from her.” Mary knows that a person “does not live by bread alone” (4:4). Like the disciples, she leaves everything to follow Jesus (5:11). Like the good soil in the parable of the seed, she hears the word, holds it fast in an honest and good heart, and bears fruit with patient endurance (8:15). As a woman, Mary chose the nontraditional role of disciple, rather than the more traditional role of supporter of Jesus and his disciples. This is a decision that Jesus appreciates, but Martha does not. In this overall setting of Luke’s gospel, Mary neglects her duties as a member of the hosting family, sits, and listens at the feet of Jesus. Mary recognizes the importance of this visit.
Students of the gospels have long noted that Luke's gospel contains much more explicit support for nontraditional converts - foreigners, sinners, and women - than do the other gospels. Here we have a direct contrast set out between a woman in a traditional gender role (that of one who prepares food and serves it) and a woman in a non-traditional role for her gender, that of disciple. Even today, some Christian communities assume this role was appropriate only for the male followers of Jesus. This passage makes it clear that for Luke, the role of disciple was a completely acceptable role for women. Luke's account makes this point clearly by contrasting Martha's reaction to Mary's choice with Jesus' reaction to it. Luke portrays Martha as asking Jesus to instruct Mary regarding her proper place in the scene. Her character's assumption is that Mary's choice not to be in a traditional female role is cause for rebuke from Jesus. The fact that he does not rebuke her, but commends her, sends the message to the gospel's readers that even if other women, in this or any future generation, were to object to women seeking to be Jesus' disciples, Jesus himself did not object. Jesus even implies that unlike others, who are given few gifts and find even those few taken away (Luke 8:18), Mary, who has only one - namely a wholehearted commitment to Jesus - will never have that one most important gift taken from her.
The truly controversial feature of this story is Jesus’ validation of the actions of the sister of Martha. Martha was only doing what a woman in a first-century Jewish household expected her to do. Mary, on the other hand, had neglected her role and had shamefully adopted the role of a man – a man who sat at the feet of a rabbi. Learning in such a manner was not the place of a woman.
By sitting at the feet of the Lord and granting Jesus her undivided attention, Mary offers Jesus true hospitality. She may not be busy serving her guest, but she hears his teaching and perceives the importance of his arrival. His visitation is more important than fulfilling what society expected of her.
Multi-tasking has become a favorite term for computer users. It refers to the ability of the computer to have several programs available to the user at once. In the same way, our culture takes pride in becoming multi-tasking people. Those of us still trying to chew gum and walk at the same time are in for a tough time. The key to being able to do many things at once is not brilliance or electronic wizardry or even terrifying efficiency. The key to that ability is focus.
Throughout many centuries, people used the story from Luke to illustrate the priority of the life in the monastery over life in the world. Some feminist interpreters believe this is an example of keeping women quiet and submissive, like Mary, rather than strong and active, like Martha. Many have found this passage very hurtful. Let us value those who serve. Let us also value those who think, pray, and listen. Let us rejoice when people can find a balance and do both. We need to be careful about condemning Martha. She is clearly doing what Jesus urged his disciples to do. That is, she offered hospitality. What Jesus is doing, while gently chiding Martha, is to commend working and showing hospitality, as well as attentively siting at the feet of Jesus attending to the word of God. We need both. Here, the two sisters embody both actions. All of us ought to try to embody them in our lives. Every full Christian life is a rhythm of actions and disengagement, involvement and reflection, arduous work and quiet receptivity.
In the context, Luke has put together two stories that illustrate the two great commandments. The first commandment is to love God with all our hearts. The second commandment is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Luke tells the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate the kind of love the followers of Jesus are to have toward their neighbors. Then he tells this little story of a woman who steps out of her traditional role. She becomes a disciple. She becomes an example of one who loves God with all her heart. The story contrasts Martha and Mary in the sense that in this moment, the proper service is not an elaborate meal. Rather, she needed to give attention to the instruction of Jesus.
Jesus reprimands Martha because she has chosen shallow perception over deep vision. Random tasks have distracted her. She attempted to complete them as she conscientiously connected the dots of her role as hostess. She was "dragged around" by all those chaotic chores. Jesus does not belittle the commitment of Martha to serving. Rather, he shows concern for her shallow perception at that moment. Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet, recognized Jesus as her teacher and Lord. She saw the magic of the moment. She perceived that this was a God-moment like none other. Martha's problem was not just that she singly focused on providing physical things for her guests. She was also mistaken about her identity at that moment. Martha was not the hostess. Mary's rapt attention at Jesus’ feet reveals to her that Jesus is our true host.
However, we need to keep the focus of the story where it belongs. Honestly, the center of the story is neither Mary nor Martha. The center of the story is Jesus, his word and his action. As part of the journey theme in this portion of Luke, this story has the central concern with what Jesus the Lord revealed about being his followers in the world. It is Mary who is acting as a true disciple- one who not only follows Christ but also who knows his words well enough to pass them along as good news to others. This text shows the gracious inclusion by Jesus of women as full participants in theological reflection and as a courageous reception by Martha of this potentially troubling rabbi, Jesus.
Modern Christian Americans are mostly "doers." We place strong emphasis in the church on the idea that what counts is what we do for Jesus. Some would even go so far as to say that it does not matter so much what we believe it is what we do that matters. Of course, that is somewhat like saying that it does not matter so much what the farmer plants – it is what he reaps that counts.[1]
A missionary was on a fast-paced journey to his station, with the assistance of some native baggage carriers. He was surprised one morning when they sat quietly in a circle and refused to move on. When he asked them why, they replied that they needed to let their souls catch up with their bodies.
CafePress has a sweatshirt with Pigpen from Charlie Brown on it with the saying: “The world needs messy people ... Otherwise the neat people would take over.” I would like us to have a little fun with our notions of neatness and messiness today. Please do not take me too seriously, but rather, I simply offer a few thoughts. I have a bit of battle with neat and messy. I have this guilt when I am messy, but not guilty enough to do that much about it. An article has helped me feel less guilty.
Penelope Green, writing back in December 21, 2006 in the New York Times, opens her interesting article by saying that Americans think they are messy and we feel bad about. Consequently, home-organizing products, like accordion files, label makers, and plastic tubs, keep going up, from $5.9 billion in 2005 to a projected $7.6 billion in 2009. That is a lot of accordion files and label-makers and plastic tubs. The industry that makes closet organizing systems pulls in $3 billion a year, according to Closets magazine. Can you believe that there actually exists a magazine called Closets? That says it all. She says January is now Get Organized Month, thanks to the efforts of the National Association of Professional Organizers.
Every movement creates its opposite. Consequently, she says, an anti-anticlutter movement is growing. A messy desk is the sign of creative minds. People with messy closets are better parents, as well as nicer and cooler people to be around. She refers to Jerrold Pollak, a neuropsychologist in New Hampshire, who says, “It’s chasing an illusion to think that any organization — be it a family unit or a corporation — can be completely rid of disorder on any consistent basis.” In another place, he says, “The idea of trying to live a clutter-free life, and stressing yourself out to do that, is an illusion. If you aim for perfection with these things, it is never going to work. It’s like looking for the perfect body, weight, face, and career.” His work involves helping people tolerate the inherent disorder in their lives. “And if it could, should it be? Total organization is a futile attempt to deny and control the unpredictability of life.”
Irwin Kula is a rabbi in Manhattan. He authored a book Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life.
“Order can be profane and life-diminishing. It’s a flippant remark, but if you’ve never had a messy kitchen, you’ve probably never had a home-cooked meal. Real life is very messy, but we need to have models about how that messiness works.”
A survey conducted in 2005 by Ajilon Professional Staffing, in Saddle Brook, N.J., linked messy desks to higher salaries (and neat ones to salaries under $35,000), remind us of Einstein’s oft-quoted remark, “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?”
Now, to pull back on this theme for just a moment, you can go too far in the direction of tolerating a mess. Yet, the image in my mind is from the movie, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest.” As part of a group therapy session, the therapist crumples up a piece of paper and throws it in the middle of the group. Finally, one of the members of the group, who seemed fine, could no longer stand it, got up, picked up the paper, and threw it away.
Could our desire for neatness be a sign? Could our tolerance of a mess be a sign? As is so often the case, the answer lies in the application of wisdom to the uniqueness of each situation.
Personally, nothing would tempt me to contact the National Association of Professional Organizers for a consultation with one of their clutter-busters. However, for some who read this article, the temptation might be present. You might want to think again.
The Summer Day Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
What will you do with your one wild and precious life? We can ask the question of the two women in this story.
What is it that you plan to do, Martha? She might say, “Oh, straighten up the house, welcome Jesus, prepare a meal for him. This is my duty. Anything else would bring shame on my family.”
What is it that you plan to do, Mary? “Sit at the Lord’s feet,” she says. “Listen to what he is teaching. I have just one ‘wild and precious life,’ so I am going to use it to soak up the word of the Lord.”
So, one is a worker. One is a shirker.
The duty of a first-century Jewish woman is to help with household chores, and Mary knows this. By sitting at the feet of Jesus, she is acting like a man ... taking the place of a disciple! She is violating a crystal-clear social boundary and bringing shame upon her house! “Wild and precious life.” Be serious, Mary.
In fact, the Bible poses many Great Questions. Sometimes, the text answers them. Often the questions are direct: "What Must We Do to Inherit Eternal Life?" and "Who is My Neighbor?" Other times, the text implies the question, like the question raised in this story. What does it mean to love God with all that you are? How do we love God with all that we are? Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. How are we to be disciples? How do we follow him?
God wants us to take seriously the value of our “one wild and precious life.” We must pay attention to Jesus when he honors Mary for listening instead of laboring. Moreover, we need to accept the fact that a perfectly organized life is not all that people might think that it is.
First, Mary keeps her priorities straight. She is like the teenager who skips a high-school dance to go on a church retreat. She is like the man who takes a week off from work to attend a conference on spiritual growth. She is like the woman who devotes an hour every week to leading a Bible study at a homeless shelter. She is like the family that makes a commitment to be in worship every Sunday morning … even on a Sunday like today, in the middle of the summer.
Second, making listening to Jesus a priority is critically important, but one maintains them at a cost. Just as Mary shattered social expectations and brought shame on her family by sitting at the feet of Jesus, those who focus on God’s word are going to find themselves on a countercultural path.
• The teenager who chooses a church retreat over a high-school dance will be lumped together with other Christians, sometimes in a derogatory way.
• The man who takes a week off from work for a spiritual conference may lose some income, or have his loyalty to the company questioned.
• The woman who leads a Bible study for the homeless will not have as much time to accomplish things at her home or her office.
• And the family that regularly attends church is not at the beach, the lake, or the amusement park every weekend.
It is clear to everyone that they have a distinct set of priorities.
Third, having the right priorities might mean things in your life will not be neat and tidy. To some, it will mean tolerating a mess. However, it is the best way to grow closer to God. When we say yes to mess, we make obedience to Jesus a top priority — even higher than the organization of our closets. Instead of measuring out our lives with coffee spoons, as T.S. Eliot observed, or measuring out our lives with papers pushed or files organized or e-mails answered, we choose instead to measure our lives with acts of faithfulness. We focus on listening to Jesus, loving God, serving our neighbors — and as we do this, we find that we have “chosen the better part,” which will not be taken away from us (v. 42).
• When we say yes to mess, we open our ears to what Jesus is saying to us in Bible study. We do not spend our time telling Jesus what we want to do.
• When we say yes to mess, we open our calendars to what God is scheduling us to do. We do not limit our church participation to Sunday mornings.
• When we say yes to mess, we open our wallets to what the Holy Spirit is inspiring us to support. We do not confine our charitable giving to whatever is left over after everything else is paid.
Of course, to say yes to mess is not to let everything spiral out of control. It is still important to cook nutritious meals for our children, pay mortgages and utility bills on time, and maintain good tax records in case we ever get a friendly call from the IRS. Nevertheless, we must keep such activities in their proper place, and not allow them to distract us from the higher priority of hearing the word of our Lord. To say yes to mess is to be willing to lay everything else aside, and pay attention to Christ’s teachings.
If we do, we will find that God has given us one wild and precious life, a life that we can fill with love, challenge, comfort and purpose. Such a life that may be messy at times, but is always filled with meaning. Put down the closet organizer, and walk away. It is time to take a seat at Jesus’ feet.
Mary is simply sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening. She becomes a model, a mentor, for we who seek to follow Jesus today. It is so easy to go through life, acting, being busy, and talking. Even when our mouths are not going, we fill our minds with so many thoughts that we might as well be talking. We often catch ourselves not really listening to another person talk. Rather, we think of the next thing we are going to say. One of the greatest acts of service we can give to others is simply to genuinely listen to them. We certainly need to do that even more when it comes to our relationship with the Lord. I imagine that Mary cherished every word. She was not entering debate. She loved her Lord, and therefore she cherished every word. I like to imagine that every word went deeply into her heart and found its home within her. There needs to be quietness around us, but more importantly, there needs to be quietness within us.
Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.[2]
To pray is to let Jesus come into our hearts. Our prayer does not move Jesus. Rather, Jesus moves us to pray. Our prayer does not draw Jesus into our hearts. Our prayer does not move Jesus to come in to us. All he needs is access. He enters in of his own consent. He desires to come into our lives. He enters in wherever he gains admittance.
To pray is nothing more involved than to let Jesus into our needs. To pray is to give Jesus permission to employ his powers in the alleviation of our distress. To pray is to let Jesus glorify his name amid our needs. The results of prayer are, therefore, not dependent upon the powers of the one who prays. To pray is nothing more involved than to open the door, giving Jesus access to our needs and permitting him to exercise his own power in dealing with them. That is why God designed prayer in such a way that the most powerless can make use of it. For to pray is to open the door to Jesus. That requires no strength. It is only a question of our wills.
I wonder if, in your life right now, there is a knock at your door. I wonder (I am just asking) if where you are now living, there is a stranger outside waiting for you to open the door. That tug at the heart, that tap upon the door, it could be you-know-who. Let us go ahead and let him in. You want to ask him in, do you not? What harm could he do?
Dear God
Each day,
When I come to pray
I ask so much of Thee.
In supplication
I bow
But seldom stay to see
What you might ask of me.
Today
Dear God,
When I come to pray
Beseeching Thy love and care,
While I'm there
Give me courage
To stay and see
What you might ask of me!
[1] Carveth Mitchell, "Complaint From the Kitchen," Emphasis, Jy-Au 1995.
[2] Revelation 3:20.
[3] -Dennis Olkholm, www.christianitytoday.com.
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