Mary and Martha at the PC

Here comes Susie Shoebox...ready to tell anyone who will listen all about Operation Christmas Child.  You've got to admit that Operation Christmas Child fanatics are, well--fanatics--when it comes to promoting this project.

Being at the processing center this season is shaking up my life a bit.  It challenges me physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Today made me do some soul searching as I thought again about Jesus' tale of two sisters--Mary and Martha.   I've been pondering the lives of those two women for years now and seeing myself alternately in each of them.  In fact, a book I love and highly recommend is "Having A Mary Heart in a Martha World: Finding Intimacy With God in the Busyness of Life" by Joanna Weaver.

I'm no Martha Stewart for sure, so I'm not neglecting relationships in favor of homemaking or decor,  but  I am definitely task-oriented and struggle to find intimacy with God and others.

So...how does this relate to the OCC processing center?

We have a task--inspecting and processing shoe boxes--and I want to complete the task quickly and efficiently.  The problem is that this involves people--people who have needs that don't always fit into my program.

There are volunteers and co-workers who have life stories and needs that sometimes collide with the job at hand.

Today my supervisor mentioned to me that for several staff members the highlight of the day yesterday came when an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease was wheeled into the processing center and spent some time bagging soap.

I'm chagrined to admit this was not a highlight of my day.   I knew she was there and interacted with her briefly but for most of the time she was there I was running around the sweet woman without really seeing her.  I was worrying about which fillers to move where and what I needed to prepare for the next shift.

How did Jesus do it?  He always managed to prioritize people without losing sight of the big picture in any way.

Lord, will You give me Your eyes more often and help me have a Mary heart?

ps--We are still not half way to our goal of processing 600,000 shoe boxes yet (sorry, Lord--I do think about that) and we are still processing boxes for Ukraine.