Go make a tea. Actually, don’t go make a tea. Instead, write about email.

What’s the cost to me of having tens of thousands of emails piled in my inbox that I see every time I open my email?

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I’ve written about Martha and Mary before. About how Jesus engaged Martha’s theological understanding after Lazarus’ death. How Jesus went in when she opened her house to the disciples. How Martha planned and served a banquet for Jesus and Lazarus.

So I’m good with people being like Martha.

That said, I read Luke’s account of the conversation between Martha and Jesus on a morning when I had also read McChesney’s idea of finding wildly important goals in the middle of the whirlwind. And on a morning when I was looking at two of my email accounts which have, together, tens of thousands of emails.

I understand the practice of scrolling through Instagram and Facebook. But I can get distracted scrolling through my own life.

In my email are newsletters I could read, reminders of sales I could shop, reminders of affinity programs I could get points in. There are comments from people I’ve known up-close and afar. There are mentions of people I’ve known who are grieving.

There are hundreds of opportunities and perceived obligations.

And then I read, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.”

What if Jesus wasn’t inviting Martha to sit down and let the stew burn? What if Jesus was thinking about the story Luke tells just before this, the one about the good Samaritan who took care of the actual needs of a person? The one where the deeply religious people ignored actual needs?

What if simple stew offered with love and attention is enough?