Is it possible to feel the pain of others? This is known as empathy and compassion. Everyone admires these qualities but they are not so commonplace in practice. It is easy to look at others and see the ways they are different from you. This makes it easy to exclude and reject them. Do you dismiss those you consider to be in trouble of their own making? It is harder to identify with those you consider to be different from yourself but can you begin with the ways you are similar rather than different? This is a first step, but I have called you to do more than this.

One day I wanted to meet with my people. I arranged it in advance. When the time came, the encounter proved to be too intense for the people. They proposed plan B, that Moses should meet with me and relay my instructions back to the people, and they would follow them. And so legalism was born. This is easier than encounter, but it was not what I wanted. You see the very same principle in effect today. How many believers do you know who live their life of faith through someone else, or reduce it to a formula? But I don’t want that for you any more today than I did for my people long ago.

What do you get out of the story of Mary and Martha? Most people draw the wrong conclusions. Was Martha wrong in serving me? Yet I claimed the role of a servant myself, and told my disciples to follow my example. Too many people who find fault with Martha are eager to sit at the feet of a television set rather than at my feet hearing my word, which is harder. I have provided you with enough time to both hear my word and serve me. If you commit yourself to both sitting at my feet and serving me you will find that one complements the other.

Do you feel sorry for those who feel sorry for themselves? By logic this shouldn’t be necessary, since they already have this task completely covered, but your instincts are correct to have pity on those who are mired in self-pity. This is a miserable condition that is not useful for them or anyone else. Does it seem a great burden to lay down your life, and pick up your cross, and follow me? Yet dying to yourself implies that self-pity is no longer an option for you and in this I am doing you a favor.