The Quiet Power

When Martha storms out of the sweltering kitchen and barges into the living room, the pressure inside her cooker has built up to a boiling point. 

Don’t you care, Lord…?

…She abandoned me…?

…All this  work…

…All alone…

…I am telling You what You must do, Lord!...

In response to all this, Mary remains… silent?

Mary doesn’t say a word.

Mary sits.

Mary listens.

Mary stays silent.

I don’t know about you, but when I am under attack, there is something inside me that wants to roar back.  Stand up to the unfairness.  Explain myself and give meticulous evidence of the fully justifiable reasoning behind my misunderstood actions.  In a raised voice. With high-pitched inflection.

But, Mary does none of that.

She might be simply stunned at the velocity her sister’s outburst, having been immersed in the life-giving, life-affirming words that soaked her parched soul with living water. Something like being suddenly jolted from a beautiful dream that makes you feel happy and whole and sooo loved… Shocked that her sister could… would speak to the Lord Himself in such a way…?

Or, perhaps Mary is simply too weak, too intimidated by her overpowering sister to defend herself?

I am not sure... but I wonder if each of these Mary's non-actions –

sitting...

listening...

remaining silent -

each seemingly passive choice is, in fact, an act of unprecedented courage and strength... a startling display of the quiet power of surrender Mary found at Jesus' feet...

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he who rules his spirit than he who captures a city. Proverbs 16:32