Skylar's Blog & Podcast

I'm going to throw out a word and I want you to answer to yourselves if you've felt this way before: unappreciated. I'm sure there are a lot of you out there who have felt this way or you have made another person or several other people feel like this (I am guilty of both). I feel like I have some sort of unspoken right to some sort of thanks or praise when I do nice things for people I care about. In my mind it just makes sense; I go out of my way to do something nice for someone and in return they offer me some sort of "thank you" or "here take my private jet" or "here's a million dollars." Now, seeing that the last two will NEVER happen I mostly just settle for the first response I wrote. There's a story in Luke that is slowly becoming one of my favorite stories in the Bible because it has so many layers. If you want you can turn to Luke 11 with me and the story starts in verse 38. Almost all of you have read this story, and I've even talked on Sunday about this story so you might be thinking, "Well I'm done with this." But wait! I think we're going to unravel a whole new layer in this story. So, Jesus comes into Mary and Martha's house, and as we all know Martha starts running around like a madwoman and Mary just decides to chill at Jesus' feet. Martha becomes irked beyond no end and comes to Jesus and says something VERY interesting: (Luke 10:40) "Lord, don't you care..." Martha feels very VERY unappreciated by Jesus. Now, I want you to insert yourself in Martha's place. Now, think about your day to day life. Most of you are extremely busy, and are having trouble just finding time to relax during the day. However, your youth pastor, senior pastor, and mailman are all saying, "Are you getting to spend any alone time with God? How have those times been going?" Now is the time for the "you've gotta be kidding me" look. After your convo with whoever you might feel a little convicted, so you look to God and you ask Him: "God, don't you care about that I'm doing all these things for you? Don't you care I'm taking care of the kids in the nursery? Don't you care I'm going to YoungLife and Campaigners? Don't you care about how busy I am doing all these things for you? Don't you care about all the things I'm not doing? Don't you care about the friends I don't hang out with because you told me not to?" We fell like God doesn't appreciate all the things we're doing for Him. Maybe you aren't like me, but I've done this. I look to God and ask Him why on earth He's trying to add one more thing like quiet time when I'm trying to serve people for Him. However, the story of Mary and Martha paints a beautiful picture of how wrong we have been for so long in where we put our time and our priorities. Martha is the perfect picture of all of us today: running around and doing all these things we think Jesus wants (and for the most part these things we do are really good things and they bless a lot of people). However, Jesus corrects Martha and tells her to look at Mary and what she's doing because she's chosen what is necessary. So many of you think you don't have enough time to spend with God, but really think about what you're saying...you're saying my time studying, with my girlfriend, in sports, and serving are more important than my time with Jesus. Jesus made it very clear: what is necessary, what is best is a vibrant and intimate relationship with Jesus where we spend time with Him. This takes precedence over all other things. If these are Jesus' words then what are we doing? Well, we're doing everything but what God desires for us to do, and eventually we will burn out, dry up spiritually, and/or become angry with God. If you want to find fulfillment...if you want peace in the midst of all the stress of school, sports, and whatever else then you need look no further than your bedroom with your Bible open and you on your knees. This is all that is necessary in this life. Oh, and by the way, God does care.

I don't know how many of you have ever experienced fear...actually I know all of you at one point have been afraid of something. I can remember being scared several times as a kid. What was your response when you were scared? Did you stick your chest out stand up and yell at whatever was scaring you (whether that was the boogeyman, spiders, monsters under your bed, or clowns...hopefully you didn't yell at clowns), or did you run and find someone to help you make it through this horrible episode? I remember a couple of time running to the two people I knew would protect me: my parents. In fact, I can remember vividly when I was scared holding my mom or my dad's hand because even at my weakest moment when I had been scared almost to the point of peeing in my diapers/spider-man underwear I knew I would find safety with them. I think back to how invincible I thought my parents were when I was a kid. I knew that nothing could touch me when I was with them. Do you remember ever feeling like this? And, like I said, for some reason it was when I was holding their hand I felt most secure. I think that was because just the act of holding someone's hand lets you know they are there and they are walking with you. However, let's exit out of our childhood and come back to today. Can you think of a time recently when you were afraid? Maybe it wasn't about monsters under your bed...maybe it was still clowns though. Maybe you were afraid about a grade in a class you don't like or just can't do lik Math, English (John Jackson) or Biology (or any other class). Maybe you heard your boyfriend or girlfriend might break up with you. Maybe your parents have been fighting a lot. Maybe a friend is really sick. There are a million maybes that are probably happening to each of you. But the question now is: where do we run? We know our parents aren't invincible and our friends are definitely not the cure all to our fears and worries. So where do we go? Read Isaiah 41:13 with me...