The Place Of Balance

John 11:5
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Three people that Jesus dearly loved.
Each one, a unique individual yet each one possesses something that I needed to see.
Personality and behavior.
Not to many people speak on these when it comes to religion / relationship that we are called to walk out with Jesus.

We tend to want to exclude such things a personality and character as being outside the boundaries of God's influence, but they are not.
From time to time you will hear me refer to a book written by Bill Jackson on the history of the Vineyard movement. His book is entitled Quest For the Radical Middle. John Wimber's view and thought was that we should always strive to find that place of balance as we follow Jesus. That place where we are not hyper-spiritual, neither are we spiritually dead. The middle ground in this relationship...the place of balance.The place of true worship.

We kind of have a picture of this found in the John 11:5 passage.
Three individuals who display the scale of human endeavor in following Jesus, and how some perceive it to be carried out.

Notice the word before the three are named.....loved.
The very heart of Jesus, no matter what the person has done or said. 
He operated from a heart of love.

First up: Martha.
Martha was the "I'm going to do for the Lord!"
She was all about doing.
Today there are those who equate their worth as a believer in the doing for Jesus.
They serve on every committee. They are in the choir. They work in the nursery. They volunteer for everything that comes down the pike. Do..do...do...do...do! Yet they never take time to sit at His feet. They never are truly able to enter into His rest. They have never learned how to return the love that has been poured out by Jesus on them.

On the other end of the scale we have Lazarus.
He is he dead man.
There are those who are faithful to the church. But they are spiritually dead and dry. There service to God has become rules and rituals. They read their Bible but it holds no real truth or impact what so ever in their lives. They read it, because that is what good Christians are suppose to do.No feelings what so ever in their relationship. Go through the motions and don't rock the boat.
Not very motivated for the Kingdom, they continue to plod along because....well, that's just what they do. They don't allow themselves to get emotionally high.....nor do they seem to sink into depression...they are spiritually dead. 

Last but certainly not least, there is the one in the middle.
Referred to, by Jesus, as the "sister".
No name, even though we know it to be Mary.
She is that place of balance in this dance called relationship with Jesus.
She has happily lost her identity and has found her true self through worship.
She has found that lifestyle of pouring out on others (the doing) and receiving from her heavenly Father (which keeps us from dying spiritually). 
No need to be identified because she has chosen to humble herself, Mary is content to be known as "the sister". First and foremost in her mind, is the desire to only do what pleases Jesus. How could you know what pleases Him unless you spent time at His fee? Time in His presence? Listened to what He had to say? This is the place that we are all called to live in.

The Mary place.
The place where, like Jesus' mother stated to the angel Gabriel, "Let it be done unto me according to your word." 
I think of the three.....
I'll choose the Mary place.
Oh yeah, one last thing.

Even as dead as Lazarus was...
Jesus was able to revive him and give him life again.
So there is still hope and a heart of love that wants to speak into the lives of those who are spiritually dead and bring them out of the tomb....out of the grave clothes...to live again.

God on you...
mb