A treasured memory came to me this week while I was attending our Community Church Conference in Florida. Some of you may know that Dr. Jeff Newhall, our executive director for the past 7 years, has stepped down from his position in order to return to the parish. And Sandy and I are quite proud of the fact that Jeff is moving to Massachusetts to take my old position at Greendale People's Church. This gives me the chance to tell everyone who'll listen that it took the head of a major American denomination to replace me. It's not exactly true, but it sounds good, doesn't it?

Well, we're very excited for Jeff and for the church. But Jeff will not have the benefit of one of the wonderful experiences I had at Greendale. That's a woman by the name of Audrey Campbell. Audrey just retired after fifty-two years as church secretary. And the memory that came to me this week was of the early days of my ministry in Worcester when I was preparing a special program. I was talking with Audrey about the materials I needed produced for it, and she asked me if I had thought about having a church supper along with the program. She thought a meal might draw more people. Well, frankly, I hadn't thought about it at all. But even if I had, who would be in charge of such a thing?

Audrey looked at me in that disdainful way she looked at all ministers, and said, "Well, do you want a supper, or don't you?"

"Who'll put it on?" I asked.

"Don't worry about that," she replied.

It turned out that what Audrey did as church secretary was quite a bit more than what church secretaries do. In a typical week, Audrey would write, print, fold, and generally produce and mail out twelve-hundred Links which was the weekly church newsletter. And she'd manage the church's accounting system. And supervise the activities in our constantly-used buildings. Audrey ran the summer Day Camp program at our church conference center fifty-miles away. And put on an orientation meetings for the hundred or so people she was taking on a church trip to Europe next month. And, not to forget, Audrey would also run two or more church suppers serving two to three hundred people on back-to-back nights in our Fellowship Hall.

Audrey was, in the words of the computer industry, a true multitasker!

One night, I was leaving the church after a meeting. It was almost eleven o'clock. I saw a light under Audrey's office door. There she was, working away on about six things at once.

I said, "Audrey, don't you think its time to go home?"

She said, "Mind your own business."

Then, she smiled at me and said, "I guess you're learning that I'm a Martha."

Martha. From our Scripture story in Luke 10. A friend of Jesus. The sister of Lazarus and Mary.

The woman who invited Jesus to her home for dinner, and then got so busy, she never even got a chance to sit down and enjoy his company.

Martha. A multitasker before there were even computers.

And both Martha and Audrey represent a facet of humanity that many of us share. Like them, some of us find in our hearts the driving need to "do".

Not too long ago, someone was telling me about their experience in moving to Tellico Village. They love the beauty of East Tennessee, the warmth of our community, the opportunity to enjoy things they hadn't had a chance to do before retirement. Then they started telling me about all the activities they're involved in - golf, Habitat for Humanity, village government, line dancing lessons. And then he smiled and said, "Boy, this retirement is hard work!"

And it is!

I think there's something at the heart of who and what we are as humans that makes us rise up to a certain level of busy-ness in life. We may retire, or just go off on a vacation - we may be young or older - but one way or another, we will find things to do until we are busy!

My own theory is that this is not a bad thing. In fact, I believe we experience it because we are created in the image of God. And God is a Creator. And that creative part of our own soul is what makes us look at a plot of land and imagine planting a vegetable garden. It's what makes us respond to the problem our child is facing by staying up all night, tossing and turning, trying to dream up some kind of solution. It's what rivets us inside the covers of a good book. It's what makes us believe we can hit a golf ball better than we really can. It's what drives us to volunteer at the Good Samaritan Center and give of ourselves to those who are in need.

And before you know it, as we follow this creative instinct, we come to a level of existence where we have to make a choice.

These chapters in Luke are full of stories about making choices. Christianity is a faith of choosing one way over another. In one passage, we are asked to choose between talking about discipleship, or about paying the price to become a disciple. In another, we must choose between interrupting our lives to love our neighbor, or to just walk on by. The life of faith is a life of choices.

And here in the story of Mary and Martha, we are confronted with our own busy-ness. And we're asked to make a decision.

I disagree with those who try to pit Mary and Martha against each other. They suggest that Mary and Martha are just two different personality types. Mary is people-oriented while Martha is task-oriented. Mary thrives on being while Martha finds satisfaction in doing. And the usual preaching approach is to contend that Christians need to be more like Mary than Martha.

I don't think so. Martha is the kind of person I'd like to have in my church. Audrey is the kind of person who makes things happen. The Christian Church was not planted by people who sat around staring at their bellybuttons, but by people who took the creative spirit in their souls and got busy with it!

So what of Mary and Martha? Well, I think they were both pretty much like you and me. They were both busy people.

But they made different choices about what to do with their busy-ness.

Martha, in a sense, let her's become the god of her life. What she had to do in the kitchen that day became far more important to her even than Jesus himself.

But Mary, on the other hand, chose to put her busy-ness on pause, and to open it up to the Lord. To let his presence, his words, his power, his guidance inform it and shape it and prepare it for tomorrow.

Have you ever wondered about why pigeons walk so funny? If you have, you're a very sick person! But according to an article in the Detroit Free Press - where else but in Michigan would you find such information? - a pigeon walks the way it does so it can see where it's going. You see, pigeons cannot adjust their close-range vision as they move. The pigeon actually has to bring its head to a complete stop between steps in order to refocus. Otherwise, it would fall over. This is the way it walks: head forward, stop; head back, stop.; head forward, stop; head back, stop. Don't laugh -- that's how it goes!

And in our spiritual walk with the Lord we have the same problem as that pigeon. We have a hard time seeing while we're moving. We too need to stop between steps -- to refocus on where we are in relation to the world and in relation to the will of God. That's not to say we have to stop and pray and meditate about every little decision in life. But certainly our walk with the Lord needs to have built into it a pattern of stops or pauses that enable us to see more clearly before moving on. We'll become as spiritually blind as that pigeon would be physically blind if we don't build in the stops.

One of our keynote speakers at the Community Church Conference in Florida was Tony Campolo. Tony is a Christian person I so very much respect. He has a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And his faith in the Lord is not self-focused, but underlies an incredibly powerful commitment to care for the poor, the broken and the lost of the world in Jesus' name. Tony, in many respects, is a modern day prophet who is unafraid to speak out against the cheap, me-and-Jesus, everything-is-reduced-to-a-few-spiritual-laws brand of Christianity that pervades so many churches today. And he is equally as quick to point out the emptiness of the growing trend in other Christian churches to celebrate social activism while denying the importance of knowing and loving Jesus in a personal way. When Tony speaks, just about everybody gets mad. Because he puts it to us all. His latest book is called, "How To Follow Jesus Without Embarrassing God". It'll provoke you if you read it! But, if you'll listen prayerfully, it just might change your life.

Last Monday, Tony was talking about the importance of pauses in our lives. Times we set aside to be with God. Not for talking. Or asking. Or telling God what he ought to be doing in our lives and our world. In fact, he reminded us of Mother Theresa who was once asked what she said when she prayed. She answered, "I don't say anything, I just listen." Then the person asked, "Well, what does God say?" She replied, "Nothing. He just listens."

Can you understand that?

Prayer is an avenue by which our souls are brought into the presence of God. The very spirit that God breathed into us when we were created is connected to the Source from which it came.

You know, when they closed the gates on the Tellico dam, the waters of the Little Tennessee River rose up to the level of the waters of Fort Loudon Lake. All that separated the two was a narrow strip of land. Then the steam shovels carved out an opening....and the waters of each flowed into the other.

And that's what happens when we pause and become present to God. The living waters of God's own self flow into our lives, and our own little streams flow into the presence of God.

And one of the things Tony Campolo was trying to say, is that when we let our souls open up to the fountain from which flows the creative power that brought the universe into being, that same power flows into our lives and becomes available to us!

Jesus is going from town to town throughout the region of Galilee. As he enters one village, there is a woman in the crowd who has been hemorrhaging for twelve years. She's gone to doctor after doctor, and has suffered much, but no one can stop the bleeding. Is she a hemophiliac? We don't know. Does she have some terrible menstrual abnormality? We don't know. We just know she's desperate, and when she sees Jesus, she thinks that - if she can just touch the hem of his garment - she'll be made well.

Slowly, painfully, she makes her way through the crowded street. Stumbling. Pushing. Reaching. Until - at last - her stretching hand brushes against Jesus. And immediately, she is healed!

And in the midst of all the noise and confusion of the tumultuous crowd, and the push and shove of the unruly mob, Jesus suddenly stops. He turns around. "Who touched me?" he asks. The disciples say, "Lord, are you nuts? You're in the middle of a mob! Of COURSE, someone touched you!"

But Jesus answers, "Yes, but I felt POWER come out of me."

I don't know about you, but I want this kind of power in my life. Power that can flow through me to help others in real and healing ways. I want this kind of power. Power that will enable me to live life as fully as I can and to fulfil the responsibilities I have. Power to be a better husband and father than I can be without the power. Power to know the words to say - or the words not to say - when a friend is hurting. Power to know the choice to make when its not clear what the right thing is. Power to face the problems I have, to overcome them when possible and to learn to live with them when I can't. Power to face up to my own death as a Christian - as a beginning rather than an ending - as a going on to do even more important things - as a reunion with loved ones - as a resurrection!!

Most of us want and need such power.

And where did Jesus find this power? Some people say, "Well Jesus was God after all." And that's true. Jesus is God. But when God wrapped himself up in human flesh and came among us, the Scriptures say he emptied himself of his godly rights. He gave up his godly power to become fully a man or woman just like you.

So where did Jesus the man find power in the midst of his multitasking life? Why, in those quiet moments early in the morning, or late at night, when he walked along the lake, or hiked up into the mountains, or lay quietly on his bed roll. When he placed his busyness on pause, and came into the presence of his Father, and let the eternal Fountain flow into the stream of himself.

And that's what Mary was doing as she sat at the feet of Jesus. Drinking from the fountain.

That's what he was trying to teach Martha in the midst of her busy-ness.

And that's what Jesus offers us.

To live as a Christian is to do! Why, we are called to multitask our lives to a degree only dreamed of by computer engineers. We have work to do at home, and we have work to do in the world. We must manage our own lives, and seek to help others with theirs. We must satisfy our own needs for food and shelter and money, and at the same time feed the hungry, provide housing for the homeless, and lift up the poor!

Oh, to be a Christian takes power.

And power is found not in the busy-ness, but in the pauses when we become present to God.

Does that sound like a description of you?

This week, carve out some pauses. Let the narrow strip of land between God's fountain and your stream be breached.

So that God may flow into you.

And give you power to live!