DAY 4: Be Expectant

I am sure the day Jesus unexpectedly showed up at Martha's doorstep was just another typical day in the life of Martha. She had much to do, more than she could accomplish in a day. The pent-up frustration of a life driven by performance as it surfaces a couple verses later in the story, the heavy yoke of trying to please God and others, the feeling of always getting the short end of the stick, the 'lesser' part, the fact of being the older one, the responsible one, always serving at a distance, never transgressing and never celebrating – all this was part of Martha's emotional make-up that day.

Jesus suddenly interrupted the mundane, everyday life of a woman with no perspective, no promotion prospects in a patriarchal society amidst a hopeless nation suffering daily under the Roman oppression. He will interrupt your life as well. Maybe there are things that look like they will never change. Maybe there are situations or relationships that seem helplessly discombobulated. Maybe you feel burned out and see no way of getting out of the hamster wheel. Maybe you feel stuck in a rut in experiences of the past and no amount of counseling seems to ever make a difference.

If so, you are set up for life-changing encounter with the Man who wraps Himself in the Unexpected. It was just another ordinary day in the life of the lame man by the pool of Bethesda. It was just another ordinary day in the life of blind Bartimaeus begging by the street outside of Jericho. It was just another ordinary day in the life of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. It was just another ordinary day in the life of Zacharias, the priest. After years and years of unanswered prayer and his wife Elizabeth remaining barren his own heart carefully tucked the bitterness inside, continuing his priestly duty inside the temple walls but remaining on the outside within His own walled heart.

Jesus heard and felt Martha's ache even when it reached the point beyond articulation. He came by that day, seemingly making it all worse by bringing even more work to her already overloaded life. But this is not where the story ends. Be expectant for the unexpected.

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD! Psalm 27:13-14