Saturday, September 20, 2008

Flowers On The Ledge

I was looking out the balcony of our hotel room in Vail. Draped on top of the ornate metal railing was a beautiful rectangular planter of reddish orange flowers. I was easily distracted by them, especially since I have a black thumb and can’t seem to make my own flowers live when I’ve planted them in the past. In front of the balcony was a huge waterfall. It made looking directly out of the room a very pleasant experience. 


The thing that struck me as I sat out on the patio to enjoy the beauty my second to last day, however, was that the flowers were right at eye level. They were the only thing I could see. I thought to myself, What’s the point of just having a view of the flowers? While they were very beautiful, I couldn’t see the waterfall very well or even the glorious mountains in the background. The flowers were gorgeous, the waterfall was refreshing, but my view was obstructed from the grandest scenery of all!

This caused me to remember a phrase that my friend Dan has quoted several times in the recent past: “Good is the enemy of best.” I think that is the case in my life sometimes. How often do I miss the big picture of the faith by focusing in on the good but lesser things of the faith? Are my priorities in line with what Jesus would want for me as His follower? Luke 10:38-42 comes to mind:

“As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’

“’Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

Martha was doing what was good, but Mary chose the better….can we say the same? Are we too busy doing good stuff to sit at His feet each day?

Volunteering at church is good. Doing Bible Studies is good. Doing your best at work is good. Keeping yourself in shape is good. Enriching friendships is good. Blogging about Jesus is good. It’s all good, unless it becomes the rival of choosing that which is better…

Let’s do the good stuff for God AFTER making the time to do the “one thing that is needed”: sitting at the feet of Jesus. Good doesn’t have to be the enemy of best in this case if we make our worship of the Lord our greatest priority.

What represents your flowers on the ledge? Go ahead and water them, but step on your tip-toes if needed to make sure your view of the better things is not obstructed. When you are looking from His high view, it may change the way you are looking at what’s right in front of you…
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9

In the Key of HE,

18 friends shared a comment:

Kim @ Homesteader's Heart said...

Oh so very true and a great reminder to myself! Off subject, How do you get the text box in your posts? I can't figure that one out but would love to know how.
xoxoxoxo!

Josh said...

What wisdom and insight. I have to admit that this is the very problem I have been having lately. I have been so focused on doing "good" for God, that I forget that He wants me to spend quality alone time with Him, praising Him and letting Him know how much I love Him.

Sometimes Christians can get too "ministry minded" to the point that they totally miss out on what really matters in life. Sure, we are called to minister and we should be proud of our calling, but it should never get in the way of our close relationship with our Father.

So well said. Always a blessing to read your posts.

Kathy C. said...

That's a great post Laura Lee, and so true. Wouldn't it be beautiful if we, as women, could remember to put our priorities in order each day. God, husband, family, then all the other "good" stuff. :)
Blessings!

Kathryn said...

LauraLee, my heart is entwined with yours here. Don't you just want to shout it from the mountaintops?! Amen, dear sister.

Kristen Schiffman said...

This same thought has been on my heart so much lately. It is great to hear a fellow friend's heart echo my same thoughts.

Lori Laws said...

Great post. Great reminder that God is to ALWAYS be first.

BigDadGib said...

Great post.
In an age where 'we' and 'I' are more important than anything else, sometimes it is easy to forget what is most important, trusting in him.

Thanks for sharing,
Gib

Laury said...

Laura dear, love this post. Am trying to stand on tip-toes to see over the obstacles in my way, for sure.

I want to sing in the key of He. Thank you for helping me to do that, Laura.

Tamela's Place said...

I enjoyed this post very much. Such insight with so much truth for us all to learn. I seen your blog on CBO, so i wanted to drop by and say hello. I also wrote a post not long ago and i titled it, "Martha have a seat" The Holy Spirit taught me a few lessons about this same subject. God bless you LauraLee

Betsy Markman said...

This is so much "where I'm at" right now. Pretty new to blogging, amazed at how much time it actually takes, wondering if I'm spending the time as I should...

Thanks for this post.

Dee Yoder said...

Need to get up on my tiptoes more often, that's for sure! I always get caught up in what I'm doing at the moment...and I've always had my "Martha" moments doing it. Wonder why Jesus felt it was necessary to give us women this example?! (As if I don't know the answer to that!)

Joanne Sher said...

Oh, so excellent! I am SO going through this now (as we've discussed). Wonderful points, and an incredible reminder.

Salute said...

I love this verse: As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
I have this book called: "Becoming a vessel that God can use" It like study guide where you read a passage and questions at the end. You learn a new verse each week and by the way this is the first verse in the book. I t just stick in my mind all the time. I thinking a doing something on my blog from this book. A great book to becoming a vessel that God can use.

Melanie said...

Wow... a great post. And very timely for me to read. Thanks for your insight!

Thanks, too, for stopping by to visit me the other day.

Have a great week!

Debra Kaye said...

Laura Lee,

Truth, absolute truth. That is what I love most about stopping by to visit with you.

I pray you have a blessed time and your view is the BEST!!

Blessings to you today, sweet sister.

Anonymous said...

I really struggle with this too...

LAURIE said...

Awesome post! I too would love to know how to put scripture in a box....

LauraLee Shaw said...

Ok Kim and Laurie,
Here is the link to get a text box in your blog for block quotes:
http://www.splitdecisionz.com/search/label/Blockquotes

Hope this helps!