Proactions, Reactions or Distractions

Luke 10:38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus [1] entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. [2] Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”


For those of you who do not know my Wife Evie, you are missing out. She is an Angel and has one of the most graceful hearts around. Her biggest challenge as a stay at home mother of four kids under the age of eight is her feeling of adequacy. As a husband I do all that I can through words and through God's word to show her that her mothering and discipling four kids is one of the most important opportunities anyone could ever think to have. The fact that God has trusted four of His Kids to our care is a tremendous privilege and responsibility. There are many days when Evie's important to do list gets knocked for a loop when a request for goldfish, an ear infection or a dirty diaper demands immediate attention. So how can she have a Mary's heart in a Martha World so to say?

The text of Mary and Martha can be overly familiar to some of us, and I would like to try to boil down what God has shown me about His word. Put simply Jesus says to Martha, "God is in your house, stop working to please Him and just Love and Praise Him". He says that to all of us as well. The key word to me is in verse 40 where Martha is distracted. So how can we tell what is a distraction. It's Simple. Anything of this world that pulls you away from praising and loving Christ even (maybe especially) if it is your hard work to please Him. (Note to all of us : We can't please Him outside of His work in us).

That may be confusing so I want to take a stab at what proactions, reactions and distractions are:

Proactions: proactions are the things that are our most important and intentional things we must do. For a Christian, that would be topped by abiding in Him through things like praise, worship, reading the word, being on mission 24/7, intentional discipleship of our family and other God directed activities. Proaction for a Christian is when we follow Christ, yet stimulate His Holy change in others in the environment around us.

Reactions: Reactions are when we respond to a stimulus. As a Christian some of these can be the Holiest moments we will ever experience. A random encounter with a Godly person that spurs you on, someone that God has prepped and you are able to share Christ with or a Mom who lovingly changes a diaper and feeds her child. Reactions should be every bit as intentional as our proactions, and for that to occur, our walk with Christ must be tight.

Distractions: Distractions can be proactions or reactions that are of this world and satisfy the flesh. Put simply, distractions are the things that separate and blind us to How great Christ is and they are everywhere.

So before we try to classify things on our terms, let's look at it through God's. Does your intentional list today reflect God and bring Him Glory, is it led by Christ? Have your reactions reflected the Love of Christ? If you have answered no to both of those, it is because you are distracted from the only one who can make us Holy.

We have a choice to make. We can let the world (even religious) stimulate us and suck us dry, or we can Follow Christ and intentionally love Him and others.