Facing difficult choices daily

By Robert Hurtgen

Many of us live with the idea that somehow, someway, on its own, life will just become simpler. We say, "When my children grow up, my life will be simpler." Or, " When I finally get out of college and get my first real job, then life will be simpler." Some of us even spend years saying, "When I finally retire then life will be simpler." Unfortunately, life will never become simpler on its own. Simple is chosen, but it is never a simple choice.

In Luke 10 we meet a woman by the name of Martha who was hosting Jesus in her home. While he was teaching in another part of the house she was distracted by her many preparations. She found herself wanting to be both in the room with her sister and the others listening to him and be away preparing the extraordinary meal. She was being pulled in two by her conflicting desires. She could only choose one. She could not have both

We want both. We don't want to choose between chocolate cake and the ability run a four-hour marathon. We don't want to choose between building a highly demanding career and a family. Even when we know two desires are incompatible, we want both.

The desire for both begins at an early age. Loving parents want their children to dream big and set ambitious goals so they tell them, "You can do anything you want." What happens though is that the parents intended optimism degrades into an overscheduled, overstretched and overcommitted frenzy. Instead of doing one, we do both. By trying to choose both we have created an emotional paralysis; an inability to choose anything. Good or bad.

Martha was stuck in the middle of two good choices. She wanted to be hospitable and be in the presence of Jesus. When she couldn't do both she bursts into the front room making a scene by demanding her sister help her. We do the same. When we can't have both we wound those we love the most.

Compassionately Jesus pointed to Martha how her sister chose the good portion. Then the scene ends. We are left wondering what happened next. In doing so we are placed in that moment to face our own choices.

We cannot have it all. We must choose. The choice is never simple, but it is daily.