I have been reading a book called Snow Falling on Cedars, it
tells the story of a Japanese girl in a small town in the middle of a white man’s
world, during 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. She is struggling to make sense of who she is
in these troubling days, who she is in her relationships, who she is in this
place she calls home.
Her mother says to her “…these are difficult times, nobody
knows who they are now. Everything is
cloudy and unclear.”
Do you know who you are, does anybody know, can we? Is anytime or anything clear, clear enough to
see who we are? Some of what makes us
who we are is set by the standards of the world around us, the place where we
live, some of it is set in place by our families, who we came from. But a lot of who we are is determined by our
choices.
Martha chose to be busy, to set preparations and tables, she
chose to serve. Mary chose to sit and to
listen, to take it all in, she chose to be still. Now I think it is not so much what Martha
chose to do so much as what she chose to say, she chose to complain, to say in
words out loud what she was doing and then to say just as loud what Mary was
not. In this moment, Jesus said Mary has chosen
what is better.
I want to choose what is better. Not so much that I want to sit and be still,
because I know I can do that and I do, but I want to serve too, to serve those
whom I love, those in need around me.
More than that, what I want is to choose better in the moment, in that
exact moment I want to choose what is better.
But like the mother in the story I am reading, I am aware that right now
for me, these are difficult times, I am trying hard to know who I am, and I am
trying to get out of the clouds to be clear. I want to do what is better.
I went to a conference this weekend with some friends, the speaker;
Kelly Minter spoke to us about knowing who we are. We are chosen, we are set apart, holy and we
are dearly loved. She said a problem
begins when we do not understand who we are, chosen, holy and dearly loved. When
we can understand this about ourselves, when we can understand the way God sees
us, then our choices become better, choices like compassion, kindness,
gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, knowing peace and knowing truth…being
clear…knowing who I am, knowing who I already am…
Chosen, holy and dearly loved
Collossions 3:12
I love that.
