I’ve written about the click track before. This is the metronome-like recording that we can play while we perform music during a service, which keeps us all together with the same tempo. It is meant to only sound in our earbuds or headphones, and not be audible to the rest of the congregation. But what is meant to happen doesn’t always happen. One Sunday, we began our music, and something seemed off. We heard the click track, but it wasn’t coming from our earbuds. After a moment, the music minister realized this too, and waved us all to a stop. He asked the congregation, “Do you hear that?” They all nodded. Oops. We just turned the click track completely off and started over again.
Sometimes a click track is not a good thing. For one thing, it can hinder our flexibility. For another, we can come to depend on it too heavily. We grow used to regularity and predictableness, even in our everyday lives. We depend on things happening the way we want, and find it hard to take a break and try something new when the opportunity arrives.
Martha had this problem, when Jesus came to visit her family. Her sister Mary chose to ignore protocol about hospitality towards guests, and instead, dropped everything to be with Jesus. Martha was not flexible enough to choose the better option in this case. While hospitality is a virtue, they were not going to have Jesus in person with them much longer. We need to make sure we are not rigid enough to miss out on the tasks and opportunities God gives us.
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-42