Daily Devotional

Choosing What is Better

by Justin Linscheid on May 21, 2022

Mary has chosen what is better…”  Luke 10:42

Do you ever get “option anxiety”? In our day and age, there are so many options. Places to eat, channels to watch, trips to take, etc. The mere variety can be overwhelming. We can feel pulled in all sorts of directions simply trying to decide what to eat or watch on tv.

In Luke 10, Jesus lovingly rebukes a woman named Martha who was pulled by the distraction of “many things”. In contrast, Jesus commended her sister Mary for “choosing what is better” (Lk.10:42). The “better” that the Lord was referring to was Himself. Mary was simply sitting at Jesus’ feet, wanting more than anything in all of the world, to simply be with Him and learn from Him. Sometimes our hearts are overcrowded with too many things. Jesus can get pushed to the margins of our hearts or worse yet, off the page completely.

In his book entitled The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, pastor and author John Mark Comer writes, “the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to. That bodes well for those apprentices of Jesus who give the bulk of their attention to Him and to all that is good, beautiful, and true in His world. But not for those who give their attention to the 24-7 news cycle of outrage and anxiety and emotion-charged drama or the nonstop feed of celebrity gossip, titillation, and cultural drivel… A recent study found that the average iPhone user touches his or her phone for two and a half hours over seventy-six sessions per day. Another study on millennials put the number at twice that.”

Many things are continually before us, our phones simply being one of them. Contrast this with the Psalmist who wrote, “I have set the LORD always before me” (Ps. 16:8). Fixing our attention upon Jesus is something that Jesus praised and called “better”.

God invites us into a life-transforming relationship with Himself. The God of the universe wants to be close with us. This is amazing. Yet many things distract us. May we, like Mary, pursue the one thing that is better than it all- a life of close relationship with God, our creator, friend, and Heavenly Father. Let’s lay aside the distractions and choose what is better. Jesus is the best option.

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