Martha my dear

Martha my dear

Pardon the reference to a McCartney Beatles song! Haha.

Martha is such a relatable character in this gospel. Trying to be as hospitable as possible, Martha almost misses the point of her hospitality: to spend a more intimate time with her Guest.

Sometimes, we spend doing jobs for the sake of appearing busy. Scholars and experts have termed this phenomenon “bullshit jobs”, where the task being performed is not actually contributing to the mission of an organization, but rather, it is created and performed only as a formality or for an appearance of necessity. Maybe because of politics or other reasons not exactly related to an organization’s mission fulfillment.

Our workaholic and hustle culture may distract us from the truly essential, like how Martha was almost distracted by chores when the whole point of authentic hospitality is spending meaningful time with one’s guest.

The challenge here is that Martha thought that what she did was necessary. All the more we are prone to fall into the trap of BS jobs or needless workaholism or hustling.

Incentives, routine, and norms may be helpful at first, but without finding time to pause and reflect, we might be inadvertently missing signals from our conscience or from our Higher Power that our actions may drift away from our actions’ initial intention.

At the risk of inappropriately citing the song (and yes, I know Martha in Paul’s context is a dog), I end my reflection with these lyrics:

“Take a good look around you
Take a good look, you’re bound to see
That you and me
We’re meant to be for each other
Silly girl”

(… Paul’s lyrics have a knack for fitting a religiosity context, ala Let It Be, eh? Haha!)

—
Luke 10:38-42. Martha and Mary

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 198: JULY 17, 2022]