Listening In preview - Jordan Raynor

NICK EICHER, HOST: Next up on The World and Everything in It: a preview of this week’s Listening In.

Jordan Raynor is an author who is passionate about your calling in life.  He says many Christians don’t consider the spiritual value of a calling, because day-to-day life just gets in the way.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Raynor speaks of how Jesus sets the priorities for us. Let’s listen to this excerpt of his recent conversation with Warren Smith.

WARREN SMITH: You begin also with a story about Mary and Martha. Why did you want to begin with that story? How does that story, which of course is very familiar to many Christians who you know know their Scripture even a little bit will probably have heard that story. Why was that story so important to you in this context?

JORDAN RAYNOR: The story you’re referencing is Jesus coming to the home of Mary and Martha, and Martha is busy doing many different things. And Mary’s sitting doing one thing, sitting at the feet of Jesus. 

And Jesus, as we all know, reprimands Martha and tells Mary, few things are needed, indeed only one, right? Which I love this verse and I think it’s representative of a deeper principle that Jesus held dear, right? 

Jesus said “no” constantly throughout the gospels, right? Jesus was crystal clear on what his purpose was during his lifetime, right? Jesus came to preach the gospel in word and in deed. And so once he got really clear on that one thing, it led him to constantly say no to really good things in order to focus on the essential work the Father gave him to do. 

And if Jesus can’t say yes to everything, neither can we. Right? If we’re going to do our most exceptional work for the glory of God and the good of others, we like Jesus have got to get in the habit of saying no. And I think this is part of the context of what he was saying to Mary and Martha in that famous passage of Scripture.

(Photo/Jordan Raynor)

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