Choose the good part
When Jesus went to visit Martha and her sister Mary, Mary sat at his feet listening to what he was saying. Martha, on the other hand, was making all sorts of preparations. She was on her knees sweating grinding millet to make kalo. Eventually, she came to complain to Jesus that Mary was not helping out.
In Luke 10:41–42 — ‘Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”’
I grew up in a typical village setting. My 4 siblings and I used to share a bedroom which was adjacent to our parents’. The walls were thin and the house did not have a ceiling. So at 6am, my mum would call out to me from her bedroom to go to the outside kitchen and light the fire for breakfast. Most days, the firewood was damp. So on the days when it was dry, I gave thanks. I would cook maize porridge which we would all drink before going to school.
After school, I would rush home, change and proceed to the garden to get potatoes that were to be eaten for dinner. There is a time I uprooted so many potatoes that they were too heavy for me to carry. I decided to bury some. On a normal Saturday, I would ferry water from a well that was about 2 Kilometers down the hill and I always attribute my height challenges to the suppression on my neck from carrying all that water. All those chores coupled with splitting firewood, grinding sorghum and many others were physically and emotionally draining.
One day out of frustration, I told my mum that when I grew up and was done with school, I would automate everything- peeling, washing…everything!
Transitioning from village life to city life and making money made me realize that the reason why I was suffering with all these chores was because we were poor and therefore could not afford the innovations to ease the laborious work. In the end, we were very unproductive because we spent so much time manually performing each little task.
Similarly, the pre-COVID work schedule was excruciatingly busy. We would wake up very early in the morning to beat the rush-hour traffic and we would take hours to reach home in the evening. Recently my friend Kasozi joked that instead of an 8-hour workday, we were working for 13 hours, and I couldn’t agree more. It is embarrassing to say that I at one point dozed off at a traffic light. Life was crazy; I couldn’t find time to pray, study the word or get involved in ministry. This is not the kind of life God wants for us. He wants us to enjoy life abundantly.
Now I ask: are there situations in your life that are stopping you from relaxing, reflecting and doing the things you love- like hanging out with Jesus? Is it a job? Is it a routine? Find different ways to innovate to make work easier. Create systems, get a coach, do something about it. Do not let life pass you because you’re too busy to live. Choose the good part.
