BUSY LITTLY BEES

Busy Little Bees

Work, work, work.  Go, go, go.  Buzz, buzz, buzz.  This is the life of a worker bee, traveling from flower to flower, carrying pollen here and there, in and out of the hive.  There are so many things that little bee has to get done by the end of the day.  And so little time: the life of the average honey bee is less than six months!

And, so, we have developed the expression, “busy as a bee” to describe someone who is excessively busy.  Man is very much like that little bee, working, going, buzzing about our daily lives.  We travel back and forth on commutes to and from work, spend half the day at a job and then have to go home to about a million tasks, chores, and projects.  Most people jam pack their days with activities from sunrise to sunset, and it begins to take a toll.

We read about another busy little bee in Luke, chapter 10.  A woman named Martha invites Jesus into her home and, like a good host, she sets to work making sure everything is just right.  Verse 40 says that Martha was “cumbered with much serving.”  Most women can relate.  When you have company, the house needs to be clean and in a certain order.  It is a show of good hospitality to offer food and something to drink.  Was not Martha being a good servant?

Certainly, Christians are supposed to show hospitality (I Peter 4:9).  We are to diligently serve one another with loving hearts (Galatians 5:13).  And, yes, we are to work hard and stay busy, thus avoiding many of the temptations brought on by idleness (Proverbs 13:4).  Christians should always find and have things to do that are honorable, just, and virtuous.

But where were Martha’s priorities?  When she saw that she was doing all of the work and her sister was doing nothing but listening at the feet of Jesus, she apparently became frustrated.  “Don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone?  Tell her that she must come and help me,” she says in verse 40.  Martha was doing well by staying busy and serving, but she seemed to lack focus on that which was important.  The very fountain of eternal wisdom and life sat in her home and she was too busy to notice!

Work, work, work.  Go, go, go.  Buzz, buzz, buzz.  That’s how our lives get.  We spend our days running around like crazy, trying to get as many things done as possible, often mindlessly, with the urgency of a honey bee who only has six months to live.  Jesus told Martha that her sister Mary had prioritized correctly.  He said, “Martha, Martha, you worry and fuss over a lot of things, but there is only one thing you need” (41,42).  Our lives can get so busy, but let’s not forget the one thing we absolutely need to do: fill our hearts with the words and Spirit of Christ.

What does your daily to-do list look like?  Perhaps you have tasks such as go to the bank, wash the car, go shopping, fix the leak, etc. on that list.  But, do you have, daily bible reading or study, on that list?  Do you have, pray for a certain brother or sister, or visit a member of the church on your to-do list?  Often, when we assume that these kinds of things should be given in our lives, we fail to do them because they really aren’t on the list.  In our busy lives, we truly will have a lot of things to do, but do we prioritize the better things as Mary did? There are a lot of things that keep us extremely busy in this world that we ultimately regret doing.  But we will never regret anything we do in service to the Lord.  Consider adding (or moving to the top of) your daily to-do list the following:

1) Read a chapter of the Bible

2) Memorize a short passage of scripture

3) Call, visit, talk to a member of the local church

4) Say a prayer with someone else

5) Ask someone else about their religious beliefs

Jeremy Koontz  

TEST YOUR BIBLE KNOWLEDGE!

List the Ten Commandments God gave Moses on Mount Sinai.

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