Washing Jesus Feet

Mary and Martha were sisters, very different from one another in personality.  Mary was the sister who chose to sit at Jesus feet and soak in His teaching while her sister Martha felt left to prepare the meal and be a good hostess.  Lately, the LORD has been dealing with me regarding the balance of "sitting at His feet," and "washing His feet."  Mary did both of these things!  I have always been the Mary sort who loves to sit and meditate on His Word and marvel at His teachings and pray.  It is such a wonderful "ivory tower" sort of experience.

In the past several years, the LORD has taken me to work in a variety of nursing homes, hospitals and home health locations as a speech and swallowing therapist.  I have struggled with the amount of time this job takes from my time in the prayer closet.  In this busy and intense setting there is little time to sit at Jesus feet, but there are plenty of opportunities for washing His feet.  He is showing me that true prayer should take me out of the ivory tower and into the byways where His people are located.  It is so much easier to pray for the lost from the comfort of one's footstool, than to get one's hands dirty, washing the stained, calloused and smelly feet of a child of God who has strayed from His path.  In other words, He has shown me that the true test of my prayers is being willing to walk out His love in actual performance of acts of love toward others.

This message came through loud and clear after a wonderful time of prayer.  A friend and I had each driven about an hour to meet in a nursing home parking lot for a few hours of prayer before I went to work. The Lord led us into an intense time of praying for the elderly and we were asking Him to move mightily in the nursing homes of this country to bring revival, to pour hope into the hearts of the aged, and to use elderly saints in a place of fruitfulness in the Church.

I was watching the clock and dreading the end to our prayer time.  As the time came for me to clock in at work, I closed our prayer time saying, "Lord, I wish I could stay here and pray!  I’d much rather pray than work with those old people on their speech and swallowing....oops!!  Just how sincere, He asked me, were all of those high and lofty prayers?  Ouch!!  Again and again, I come back to the fact that it is not our words alone, but our lives that become prayer and intercession before His throne.  What we do to the least of these, we have done unto Him.  Is our service to others worship to Him?  Is it done with joy?

It is certainly one thing to pray with an open Bible, eyes heavenward and another thing to hold the calloused, dirty foot of a dying alcoholic with lung cancer who is coughing up blood and trim his crusty deformed toe nails or to swab the mucous out of a mouth filled with sores...  Jesus walked amongst the lepers and healed them.  Jesus allowed His hands and feet to get dirty as He walked amongst the sick and the sinners.

The LORD is showing me how neat and tidy I want things to be but Mary washed His dusty feet and anointed Him for burial.  Sometimes the realities aren't as romantic as we envision them from our ivory tower!!

Only by His Grace,

Tami

This was originally titled, "Mary and Martha" and was written August 28, 1997.