The Balanced Life is a Lie – The Extreme Secret Mary Knew and You Can Learn

I was a weird little kid by any account. I was bookish and chubby but that’s not what made me weird. The exponential factor for my weirdness was a direct result of my early passion for Jesus.

By second grade, the Bible was my favorite book to carry around and read and what was worse was that I believed what I read.

You have to admire the special brand of grace extended to me by the adults at Hope Valley Baptist. They tolerated a ten-year-old wondering aloud if bake sales were Biblical or if it was wrong to serve doughnuts and coffee after a presentation on the famine in Ethiopia.

I distinctly remember one of my elementary school teachers asking me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I told her confidently that I planned to be a missionary.

She chuckled, patted me on the head and then said something I never forgot, “When you grow up, you’ll realize that religion is useful but that no one appreciates a fanatic, dear. Someday you’ll put Jesus into proper perspective.”

That memory came flooding back to me this week when a woman told me about a sermon she heard Sunday that “finally sided with Martha.”

She said her pastor had told the story about Martha, bustling around her home preparing meals for her guests but becoming frustrated that her sister, Mary, was not helping. Mary was sitting and listening to Jesus. When Martha asked Jesus to correct Mary, Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen the better thing and he wouldn’t take it from her.

According to my friend’s pastor, though, REALLY, we need Martha. So EVEN THOUGH Jesus said that Mary chose the best thing, we KNOW that life is all about balance so we need to give Martha some credit, too.

See, that’s not Biblical.

Jesus said Mary had it right.

Jesus didn’t ever talk about balance. Jesus was extreme. He said things like “Don’t worry about tomorrow.” And “He who loves His life will lose it.” And “If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him your left.” There was no mention of balance there.

Jesus calls us to follow Him. That means giving Him the controls of our lives. Most of us want some kind of deal like a student driver car where Jesus is at the wheel but we still have a set of brakes on our side.

We want to hear what Jesus says but if we stop bustling around in the kitchen, people will think we’re fanatics, like Mary, and we don’t want that.

What we want is balance – the ultimate and elusive goal of modern American culture. We want to follow Jesus but we also want balance with a capitol B. We want to follow Jesus but we don’t want to be weird or fanatics or boat-tippers or trouble-makers or apple-cart up setters or . . . well, you know.

In college, I dated a guy who rode a motorcycle. I’m not a good passenger in a car so you can imagine me on the back of a motorcycle – it’s not a pretty picture.

But I do remember, after our first ride, him explaining that if he leaned one way, I had to fight my natural inclination to lean in the opposite direction. What I thought would maintain our balance, actually worked against what he was doing and would more likely cause us to spin out than if I went with his lead and leaned with him, not against him.

Oh.

People were always trying to keep Jesus in balance but He’s extreme. Some people walked away because He was so extreme. Others learned to let everything else go and lean with Him in the ride of their lives.

We need to stop bustling around in the kitchens of our lives and sit listening to Him even though bustling feels like what we should be doing and sitting feels like it will result in disastrous life imbalance. Balance isn’t the thing we need, Jesus is. Bustling isn’t the thing we need, Jesus is.

Jesus is extreme. He’ll throw your life out of balance with a single command but that’s all right. See, maintaining balance doesn’t keep your life from crashing, Jesus does.

That teacher was right. I did learn that no one appreciates fanatics but that’s OK. You see, I also have Jesus in proper perspective so I know what does matter – and it’s not what people think.

Are you ready for extreme faith? Are you ready for a life out of balance? Are you ready to hop on the back of His bike and lean with Him, not against Him?

Come on, Martha, get out of the kitchen. Feel the Wind in your hair. Take a ride with Jesus and know what Mary knows – what it’s like to really live.