Luke 10:38-42 The Better Part

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” [NRSV]

DISTRACTED BY MANY

It does not take much to distract me.

1. New Study on Multitasking from Forbes 15 point loss on IQ  Stanford major degradation

2. Recent Study on ADHD from Fox/Reuters 14% boys and 6% girls

3. Article: Fascinating Email Facts and Statistics

       Statistics, extrapolations, and counts by the Radicati Group found the following:

• • Over half of the world population uses email in 2019.
  • The number of worldwide email users is expected to grow to over 4.3 billion by the end of 2023.
  • The total number of business and consumer emails sent and received per day will exceed 293 billion in 2019 and is forecast to grow to over 347 billion by the end of 2023.
  • DMR has curated these other fascinating tidbits about email:
  • The first email system was developed in 1971.
  • Each day, the average office worker receives 121 emails.
  • The click-through rate for email sent in North America is 3.1%.
  • The average click-through rate on desktop computers is 13.3% and, on mobile devices, it’s 12.7%.
  • The average amount of overall emails opened on desktop computers is 16%, on mobile devices is 55.6%, and on webmail is 28%.
  • The Apple iPhone email client is used most, followed by Gmail.
  • The open rate increases by 17% when the subject line is personalized.
  • Forty-two percent of Americans admit to checking email in the bathroom, and 50% do so while in bed.
  • The average open rate for retail emails is 20.96%, and for political emails is 22.23%.
  • The top spam content category in 2017 was healthcare, followed by malware.
  • The top reason U.S. internet users unsubscribe from email lists is, “I get too many emails in general.”
  • 99Firms has its own curated list that includes the following facts:
  • Despite the rise of social messaging apps, 78% of teenagers use email.
  • A majority (62.86%) of business professionals prefer email to communicate for business purposes.
  • Ninety percent of workers check their personal email at least every few hours.
  • Email click rates increase by up to 300% if a video is included.
  • The best times to send email are 10:00 AM or between 8:00 PM and midnight; the best days are Thursday and Sunday.

Texting:

1. Funny top 10:TOP 10 REASONS PEOPLE DON’T RESPOND TO YOUR TEXTS

[1] The person really doesn’t like you.

[2] They are getting back at you for ignoring one of their text messages.

[3] They find your text message dialogue really boring and are on social media looking for something better to distract themselves with.

[4] They are playing mind games with you, full well knowing that by keeping you waiting for a response will cause you bitter frustration and they get a kick out of it.

[5] They are lazy and don’t respect you enough to respond to you.

[6] Very rarely, but some times, their battery dies. This is usually an excuse……go back to reason number 5.

[7] Some people work for a living, get off their back! They are WORKING… smarten up, the world doesn’t revolve around you.

[8] They just installed the new iOS and lost all their contacts (yes, even your precious contact info). They don’t recognize your number and are worried that your text might be from that person they gave their number to the night before.

[9] They are upset with you and decide to be passive aggressive with you instead of facing the problem head on up in a mature forward thinking fashion.

[10]… and finally… did you actually check to see if you pressed send after you finished writing your emotionally charged message? This is the worst feeling ever and really makes you look at yourself as a super self-centered individual, realizing that you are the only one to blame for getting all upset over nothing.

1. 50% of the world has an email account. 86% USA 17% read more than 3 second/per.
2. 97% who have cel phone carry them with them. 62% ignore half of their text
3. How long before we begin speaking in response? 200 milliseconds

THE NEED FOR ONE THING

The one thing is being connected to God. We do this in many ways, but its the one thing.

Mary is choosing to focus and listen

Martha is choose to control, prepare, define, assume, look from martha’s perspective and not Jesus’s

CHOOSING The BETTER PART

The better part are the choices we make to be

• • unplugged from TV and politics,
  • unplugged from working when we need Sabbath Rest.
  • setting down the technology and to-do lists and listening to God so that we don’t miss God in our presence, in our homes, in our daily moments.

Action: moving toward God through worship, service, and devotion