But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42)

One of my all-time favorite movies is City Slickers.  Themes of forgiveness, renewal, and the power of loving relationships are threaded through the movie.  In City Slickers, Billy Crystal plays a man turning 40 and going through a crisis of meaning.

He receives a piece of enigmatic advice from the character played by Jack Palance, who acts as a grizzled spiritual guide to Crystal.  He says the meaning of life is “one thing,” the one thing that centers everything else.  The one thing that demands everything else takes second place.

In the movie, Billy Crystal’s character asks what the “one thing” is, only to be told that’s just what he needs to figure out.

In Luke’s story, Jesus visits two sisters, Martha and Mary.  Martha is consumed with doing her duty as a host.  She cooks and serves and fusses.  She wants things to be just so for Jesus.  The more she cooks and prepares, the more she misses the help of her sister who is sitting at the feet of Jesus, leaving her with all the work.

Martha urges Jesus to send Mary back to the kitchen, but Jesus tells her that Mary has chosen the one needful thing.

When we have visitors, we strive and fuss and prepare; we clean, we fluff pillows, we drive ourselves to distraction to do our best for our guests just like Martha did.  And just like Martha, we risk missing out on the best part of the visit – just being together.

The one needful thing is to share our whole self in relationship.

That’s the most important thing in our relationship with our friends, our spouses, and our children. 

It is the most important thing in our relationship with God.

Our anxious striving, our desire to make everything (especially ourselves) perfect, can get in the way of the one thing God has wanted from us since God came calling for Adam, who started the long tradition of hiding from God back in the garden. 

God wants us.

That’s the one thing God has set above everything else – to be with us.  And God wants to be the one thing that stands at the center of our lives.

Prayer:  O God, save me by subtraction.  Strip away all the things that get in the way of the one thing that truly matters – finding my life in you.  Amen.