I've noticed a trend in Christianity that is having devastating effects on individuals and the church.  This trend is subtle and can sneak up on anyone, from the seasoned minister to the new Christian.  The problem is the busyness of people. People are just plain busy. We've got everything from family activities to a grueling work schedule to keeping up our homes.  These are all things that need to be done but suck up our time.  And it seems for far too many, the things that get left behind are the spiritual disciplines.  I found a survey recently and was staggered by how far reaching this trend is around the world. What has happened?  It seems that we have allowed our culture to dictate our lives.

As I've thought about this, I was reminded of Mary and Martha in the Luke 10:38-42 (ESV):

"Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 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." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

As we look at this passage (and I recommend to begin looking at Luke 10:25-42 to see problems people have in wrong priorities of loving God and loving other people) we see two individuals, Martha and Mary. Martha was a work horse; she's the kind of women many people would like to have in their church. Now I think Martha loved Jesus but her priorities were misplaced. The text says she was continually being pulled away from the teaching of Jesus...she became preoccupied with this meal and it took her away from being taught by the Master. Her priorities were so misplaced that she even told Jesus her sister should be helping her.  The meal needed to be done well, didn't it?  But, to Martha's surprise, Jesus told her that Mary had chosen the right portion, that is sitting at his feet and being taught. Now was it wrong for Martha to work? No. But the problem became that she allowed her work to get in the way of something that was more important, being taught by Jesus.

I looked at this passage and thought, how many of us have wrong priorities and that pulls us away from being fed from the Word of God? How many of us are willing to say, "I'll be in God's Word tomorrow,"  or "I can miss small group this week"?  In doing so, we make value judgments based upon what we think is most pressing.  We've allowed the busyness of our culture to shift our priorities away from that right portion! Something has got to change.

I challenge you to think about your own life. Are your priorities misplaced? Are you allowing the culture to dictate your relationship with God? Are you living a life that is centered on your family or spouse or friends or job or sports or leisure activities or TV watching or ministry (yes, that can hamper our relationship with God if it makes us too busy) to detriment of your walk with Christ? I challenge you to take radical measures - examine if there are things in your life that you can cut out or make secondary.  But more importantly, I challenge you to put Christ are the center of your life.