A severe mercy....

One way or another the thing had to die. Perpetual springtime is not allowed. You were not cutting the wood of life according to the grain. There are various possible ways in which it could have died tho' both the parties went on living. You have been treated with a severe mercy. You have been brought to see (how true & how very frequent this is!) That you were jealous of God. So from US you have been led back to US AND GOD; it remains to go on to GOD AND US. She was further on than you, and she can help you more where she now is than she could have done on earth. You must go on.--- CS Lewis, from the book A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken, upon the death of his wife.

Now it came to pass as they traveled, that He entered into a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And the woman had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and was listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, don't You care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
(Luke 10:38-42)

In everything, there is a tension between our desires and the desires that motivate that action. Behind everything we do, there is a search for Joy (as Lewis called it). Or maybe Hope is a better word: Hope in a Hebraic sense where the word picture is clinging to a cord, attached to the only thing that can save you. For Vanauken, in the above quote, his cord was his wife and their love as the sublime US. For Martha, her cord was proving herself valuable by the effacy of her service. We are all attached to something to make sense of our efforts and strivings in this life. And while Jesus certainly doesn't invalidate the intrinsic worth of marital love or hospitality, his response is His characteristic 'yes' when our question is '2+2=?'. It's not that he's dodging our query with the wrong answer; but that we are asking the wrong questions to seek the knowledge we desperately need in pursuit of the most Holy 'What are we looking for?'

Jesus answers our questions of longing with Himself. The dichotomy here is not between Jesus and the 'kitchens' of our work and striving. The dichotomy is between life with Jesus and life without; so much so, that one almost assumes that Jesus would have helped Martha if she would have asked. Martha is busy caught up by her desire for fairness between her and her sister. Jesus is busy caught up in His desire for Martha. That's the point. We can long together as friends, the Lord and Us, provided we long together. He's the only one can satisfy, the Lord, Hope of our lives.

More later

Daniel