One thing

‘one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her’ (Luke 10:42)

Source: Dr. Rick Hanson

There is a saying that goes ‘when you are up to your neck in alligators it's easy to forget that your original intention was to drain the swamp!’ The intended message is of course that when we encounter difficulties it’s easy to be side-tracked into trying to deal with them rather than pursuing what we set out to do. Problems and fear can distract us from our core purpose, shifting our attention from one place to another and causing us to forget the one thing that we intended to do or promised God that we would do. It may not necessarily be problems though, when things are going well the distractions can be just as strong. In a Parable about the Kingdom of Heaven the invited guests all pointed to really positive reasons why they were distracted and therefore not coming to the wedding banquet (Luke 14:16-24). In the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:1-9, Jesus picks up this theme in the language of His day. He talks about seeds falling on stones and into thorn bushes. He explains that they represented distractions arising from shallowness, and the successes and riches or cares and hardships of life, warning that these can cause God's Word in us to be unfruitful. In that Parable the seed (the Word of God) was good seed – the same seed was used on each different type of ground but only in the well-prepared, good ground was the seed fruitful.

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When Jesus met a rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-23, they had a conversation about what the young man must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus said ‘keep the commandments’ and the ruler replied that he had kept them from when he was a boy. Jesus then identifies the real issue ‘One thing you lack’, he said (Mark 10:21). ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’. Scripture records that the young man went away sorrowful because he had great possessions. In his case his distraction was in the thorn bush of the love of riches (in the Parable of the sower terms; if he had obeyed Jesus it would have cleared his ground of thorns and allowed the seed to thrive). The young man's approach to salvation and God had encountered a singular blockage.

As usual Jesus puts His finger on the issue straight away. Apparently, the young man was able to keep the commandments at least outwardly as required by the law in those days but he was hiding away the real problem that was preventing him drawing near to God. The Bible tells us at the beginning of Mark 10:21 that; ‘Jesus looked at him and loved him’ – however He went on to tell the young man what he needed to know – ‘You are lacking one thing’ (ESV) He said. Jesus knew that ignoring such a significant blockage at this point would result in big problems later on. He also knew that the Holy Spirit would not compete for the young man’s affections with an idol (the love of money) ruling his heart. The young man went away sorrowful but apparently not with Godly sorrow leading to repentance. He went away grieving that he would have to give up his riches to enter the Kingdom and in Mark 10:24-25 Jesus comments to His disciples about how difficult it was for those with riches to enter the Kingdom.

In a recent group meeting a young man asked a question about his approach to life. We replied; why are you asking that question? He said ‘I want to find out if there is anything I lack?’ I think that if we are honest all of us has an area where we know that we are vulnerable to temptation. Sometimes this is a Godly ‘deal-breaker’ – it has to be dealt with or we cannot progress any longer with our walk with God. Testimonies that I have heard from people about these issues have had a variety of outcomes. With some repentance and Godly sorrow led to deliverance and release; with others failure to obey the Lord led to a time of frustrated battling between themselves and the Lord until they were ready to go His way; with still others, lack of obedience in a key area caused them not to see fulfillment of the purposes of God in their life for some time (years in some cases). I guess that many of us have felt sorry for Moses at one time or another who instead of speaking to a rock as God commanded decided to hit it with his staff as he had done before. Water came out but the consequence of these actions meant that Moses was forbidden to enter the Promised Land with the Children of Israel even after all he had led them through and endured (Numbers 20:7-12).  

Sometimes our ‘one thing’ weakness can work out for the Glory of God. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 Paul tells us that he was given a messenger of Satan to buffet him and he begged the Lord to remove it three times but God said ‘My grace is sufficient for you; my strength is made perfect in weakness’. Clearly this will be a different conversation with the Lord for each of us. Scripture says that as we draw near to the Lord, he draws near to us and when we are close enough, He begins to speak to us. These are not words of harsh judgement but those of a loving Father - although their purpose is to remove obstacles in our lives that will in the end do us harm. It may be that the Lord will say that He is not at this time going to remove a temptation or testing from us. We may have to live with our ‘one thing’ and learn to overcome through His Grace.

In the movie 'City Slickers' Jack Polance's character (Curly) tells the intrepid would-be cowboys on the dude ranch that life is about 'one thing'. ‘Find that’, he says ‘and everything else won't count for much!’ (Using slightly more colourful language). I thought about this when I considered the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42. Martha invited Jesus into her house and set about serving her guests. She was clearly busy and frustrated that Mary, rather than helping, was sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to what He had got to say. Martha asked Jesus if it didn’t bother Him that Mary had left her to serve alone. In Luke 10:41-42 Jesus replied ‘Martha, Martha, you are careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her’. Jesus supplements this in other parables about the Kingdom of Heaven where He explains that it is like someone selling all they have to be able to buy one priceless pearl. As Mary realized, the offer of walking with the Lord was worth more than all of the other things that we might own or do – even if they are good things to do.

Of course, personality influences this issue of focus quite a lot – in everyday life some of us are more easily distracted than others. For introverts the distractions are internal – all of those compartments to visit and maintain containing our ideas, thoughts, theories, pet projects, dreams and plans. For extroverts it’s the external that is fascinating - all those people to talk to and check things out with. Then there is our occupation with busyness – never mind the theory let’s just do it – or experiment a little. Maybe our thing is the theory – so many new things to explore, think and reflect on… The potential distractions are endless, aren’t they, regardless of the type of person we are? At a ‘New Wine’ workshop a couple of years ago someone was talking about this and stressing the need for introverts to add a temple to the different rooms in their lives – and go there frequently so that everything else can be influenced by it. The urging for extroverts was for them to build an internal temple as it might not come naturally to them. The thing is that as we see these distractions as rooms in our lives there is a test that we can apply as to whether time spent in that room is likely to be fruitful. Metaphorically the suggestion is to take some anointing oil from the temple and use it to anoint and ‘sanctify’ the room. If it is something that aligns with God’s purpose and He can bless then well and good, but if our attempts to bring it into subjection to the Holy Spirit’s control fail then we must ask whether the activity is helping or hindering our walk with Jesus?

So, what might we say in conclusion to these thoughts? Like Mary we must be convinced in our minds that a life with Jesus is the ‘one thing’ to be valued more than anything – even if it gets us into hot water because others do not understand what’s at stake. We must allow that ‘one thing’ – our walk with the Lord - to govern all of the other compartments of our lives and get rid of baggage and rubbish that trips us up and clutters our rooms. Where we have other legitimate interests and passions, let’s not allow even our dearest pursuit to distract us from the pursuit of the Kingdom of God and the promise of a daily walk with Jesus. God does not promise to remove our ‘one thing’ distractions, temptations or tests – as Paul did, through His Grace, we may need to use the Lord’s strength to live with them and grow stronger through it, remembering that ‘His Grace is sufficient. His strength is made perfect in our weakness’.

Author: Chris Pearson

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