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,