Lord, Don't You Care?!

 

"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!" - Luke 10:40

"Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown" - Mark 4:38

Have you ever heard about the 5 love languages? Acts of service, physical affection, quality time, gifts and words of affirmation. So my love language is somewhere between acts of service & words of affirmation, err and then on some other days gifts! :)  It's pretty cool to understand what our preferences are, and also those of the other people we do life with. It can help improve our relating with others. However, we must be careful not to be dogmatic and emotional, that we miss out on our being loved in a fresh new way. God expresses His love towards us in so many different ways.

Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made, whilst her sister sat at the feet of Jesus. Her desire to serve shouldn't really be a bad thing right? What could possibly be wrong with wanting to serve others? I would think nothing too, only if it was at the expense of something far much more important. "Lord don't you care?", Martha was taken aback, when Jesus won't consider asking Mary her sister to help her with the serving. - Martha's thoughts would have gone something like -"here Jesus, here, look at me slaving away, and my sister just sits there. Do you not care that she isn't helping out? surely serving should be far important, than her sitting with you doing nothing?" - I also imagine some grumbling and grunting following, beneath her breathe. What Martha failed to recognise was that, what she considered to be Mary doing nothing, was actually a whole vibe of "good thing"

Jesus said to Martha "Mary has found this good thing"  -Luke 10:42. Mary was enjoying quality time with Jesus. I don't believe Jesus thought Martha's serving heart to be unimportant. But Martha was obviously exhausted whilst she served, which is usually the case when we are running empty. Her love language at that pressing moment may have seemed like "acts of service", but really what was necessary for her was 'quality time". Thing is, if Martha was "filled up" spiritually, she would have had the capacity to serve joyfully. And if she truly needed genuine help, she would have requested it, without projecting her insecurities on Mary. "Lord do you not care? Of course Jesus cared, only Martha had her priorities the wrong way round. What could be far more important eh, when Jesus is in the building. What could be far more important when Jesus is in the room?!

"Master do you not care if we drown?" - again the famous four letter word, just in another context. Well, Jesus was sleeping and snoozing through a storm? quite an abnormal awkward behavior for a desperate situation. Shouldn't this be a small thing for Mr "wonder man"? I mean, the disciples had seen Jesus perform all sorts of healings and miracles, multiplied loaves of bread and fish. He is known for his incredible empathy & compassionate heart. How can he then sleep through a storm? Should not even be the case, in a storm with the disciples onboard! - [c'mon man, we are your special people tsk tsk tsk] - It never even crossed their minds once, that perhaps Jesus might have been very tired, deep in sleep from a really long day?!  Don't even put your nose up, haven't you heard people sleep through fires because they were really knackered? LOL. 

We can certainly relate to the disciples. It is pretty typical of us humans to think about ourselves first when in desperate situations. "Master do you not care if we drown?" The disciples here; though they might have thought that what they required was "acts of service", what Jesus had planned out for them was actually far more adventurous than what they had in mind. It was "the gift of faith". "He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?". They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" - Mark 4:40-41. How else could they have known for sure outside of a storm,  that apart from all of the healings & miracles they had seen so far, the winds and the waves too also obey Jesus?

"A ship in harbour is safe, but that's not what ships are built for" - John A Shedd

We can get so caught up in "shallow loving", that when God is loving us deeply through other ways, our hearts are unable to process it. God does not love us like humans do. God loves us deeply. We doubt his love for us because He is not loving us, the way we want Him to. We then conclude that He doesn't care. We assume, we understand our own needs better. But if God made our hearts, best believe then that He certainly knows what it needs!

Consider then friends, that when we don't understand certain situations, it doesn't then mean that God doesn't care; but perhaps He is loving us in a much more adventurous way.

"So do not be like them, [praying as they do], for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him" - Matthew 6:8 AMP

Love,

SR