Martha and Me

(This was originally posted quite a while ago when I had about 10 followers.  It’s something I feel my readers now will appreciate and something I was recently reminded of for myself so I’m reposting it) I have often struggled with how unemotional my faith is.  I see people jumping up and down during worship, praying amazingly deep prayers, or witnessing to someone from a deep place that I don’t even think I possess.  I have asked myself so many times, “Am I doing something wrong?  Do I not truly and deeply love my God, the Creator of the Universe?”  I think I do, and then I am surrounded by others who weep, laugh, or dance when they feel overcome with God’s goodness, and I wonder if I’m missing something. I relate to God in a much different way.  I am an intellectual when it comes to my relationship with the Lord.  I love learning deep truth from Scripture.  I feel most alive spiritually when I am talking to someone with whom I care deeply about what I am learning regarding the Lord and what He is doing in my life.  I question worship songs that are not Biblically accurate, I question what pastors or teachers preach/teach if they can not back up what they say in the Word, and I love learning deep truths about my Savior. Still, sometimes I feel like there must be something missing in my faith. This past week, I was in a class discussing how to minister to women in pain.  At the end of the class, we looked at the life of Jesus and how He ministered to those in pain in John 11. Basically, the story goes like this… Jesus was friends with a sibling group – Mary, Martha, and Lazarus – and Lazarus got sick while Jesus wasn’t nearby.  A messenger came, telling Him that His friend was sick, but Jesus decided to stay put for two more days before heading to Bethany, where the siblings lived.  During this time, Lazarus died and was buried. 

When Jesus was just about there, Martha heard He was coming and ran out to Him.  She said “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. (vs 21-22)”  Jesus and Martha then got into a discussion about the resurrection and when exactly Lazarus would rise from the dead – whether then, or in the last days.  Their discussion ends with Martha exclaiming “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. (us 27)”

Next, Mary comes to Jesus.  Mary fell at Jesus’ feet and said to Him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (vs 32)”  Jesus didn’t say anything to her but simply cried alongside her, showing His pain and His love.