As a disciple of Jesus, I am made new. You are made new, too.
And being made new means learning to think differently about what we have been taught. Sometimes we need to rethink something, unlearn what we thought we knew, or relearn what we misunderstood. The process can have its ups and downs, but I have come to see even those moments as a gift.
They make me slow down and hold my thoughts up against what my Lord has said.
Is this really true? Did Jesus actually say this? Is this what Scripture teaches, or is it simply what I have always been told?
Today, I especially want to encourage my sisters who have chosen the good portion.
You have done a good thing. And Jesus said it will not be taken away from you.
I was just a kid when my parents first chose to believe the gospel. I’m sure I didn’t fully understand who God was or everything He had done, but from the moment I heard about Jesus, I wanted to learn all about Him.
My curiosity led me into a place of deep questioning, and honestly, that has blessed my life.
I have never been afraid to ask questions. Not because I want to argue, but because I genuinely want to understand. I need to know whether something is true. I want to examine it, wrestle with it, and know that what I am receiving is something I can hold onto because it is true.
And my questions have never stopped me from telling people about Jesus. I have had a zeal for Him for as long as I can remember.
The more I learn, the more I realize that Scripture is filled with people asking questions. People encounter God, hear His Word, wrestle with what He has said, and learn along the way.
Questions do not automatically mean rebellion. Sometimes they are evidence that someone is listening.
Jesus drew enormous crowds. Some followed Him because of the miracles and signs they witnessed, but not everyone who followed Him wanted to learn from Him. Some wanted the miracle; others wanted the spectacle.
But the disciples kept coming to Jesus with questions. They would ask what He meant or how something could be, because they were learning. And even when Jesus gave them clarity, they did not always immediately understand.
Learning was a process for them, too.
That gives me hope. If Jesus was patient with those who genuinely wanted to understand, I can trust Him to be patient with me.
And I find it especially beautiful when I think about the women who followed Him.
After His resurrection, Jesus appeared first to women. These were women who had followed Him, heard Him teach, and witnessed His ministry. When they became witnesses to the very thing He had told them would happen, He did not tell them to keep it to themselves.
He gave them a message to carry.
They were sent to tell His brothers what they had seen.
As one professor I listen to put it, “The women were the apostles to the apostles.”
I love that.
And then there is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Scripture tells us that Jesus loved all three of them.
Mary understood that something important was happening while Jesus was speaking. So, while Martha was busy serving, Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened.
She was learning.
When Martha became frustrated and asked Jesus to send Mary back to help her, Jesus did not tell Mary she had chosen the wrong place. Instead, He defended her choice.
“Mary has chosen that good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
— Luke 10:42
That word lives beside me. I can picture Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening and learning. And Jesus called that the good portion.
Consider the significance of that moment. Jesus lived in a culture where women were not generally given the same opportunities as men to learn publicly. Yet here was Mary, sitting at His feet, listening to Him teach. He did not tell her to leave or say the lesson was only for men. When Martha asked Him to remove her, Jesus defended her decision to stay.
I don't believe Jesus was belittling Martha. She was serving and doing something good, and He loved her, too. But He was showing her that something more important was happening in that moment.
The presence of Jesus was not an interruption to the serving; He was the reason to stop and listen.
If I could picture that scene in my mind, I almost imagine Jesus saying, “Martha, don't worry so much about serving Me. Come sit beside your sister. There is something here for you, too.”
Come and be nourished.
Come and learn at His feet.
That invitation is for all of us.
Jesus calls His sheep, and His sheep recognize His voice. He gathers them, cares for them, leads them, protects them, and provides for them. And as His disciples, we learn to follow Him.
We do not all learn at the same pace or wrestle with the same questions. As a homeschool mom, I see how differently each of my children learns. Yet they are all learners, just as every disciple of Jesus is a learner.
But learning is not the end of the journey. What we learn must shape how we live.
Jesus does not call us merely to collect information about Him. He calls us to follow Him and obey what He has commanded.
Look again at the women who witnessed His resurrection.
They were given something to do with what they had seen.
They were messengers.
Jesus did not tell them to keep the news to themselves. He gave them something to carry and someone to tell.
Think about the word pronouncement. It is an official declaration, one that carries weight because of the authority behind it.
When we faithfully speak God's Word without adding to it or taking away from it, the authority does not come from us. It comes from the Word we are delivering.
That distinction matters, because we are not the authority—Scripture is!
If you read last week's post, you know that when I lived in New York, I had an internship in the office of an entertainment lawyer.
Every now and then, he would send me out on an assignment.
“Go down to the breakfast pub and pick up my order.”
Or, “I need you to deliver this message to so-and-so. Here's the address. Go.”
And I was always thrilled when he sent me out of the office.
I was a messenger.
He gave me a task, and my job was to carry it out according to his instructions. If he handed me an envelope and told me to deliver it, I didn't open it and rewrite the message. I didn't decide his words needed improvement before I delivered them.
My job was simply to deliver what I had been given.
That is what a messenger does, is it not?
And that is how I think about the servants of God. We do not speak because we have invented something of our own. We speak because something has been entrusted to us.
We carry the message. We deliver what has been given.
And if we are walking by the Spirit, our confidence should never be in ourselves. It should be in the One who called us, taught us, equipped us, and gave us something worth carrying.
That is why I am not afraid of questions, and I am not afraid to share what I am learning. I am not afraid of women who want to open their Bibles and ask, “Wait a minute. What does this actually say?”
I am not afraid of the woman who sits at the feet of Jesus and keeps asking until she understands.
Jesus did not take the good portion away from Mary. And He will not take away the invitation to learn from you, either.
So, sisters, if you have chosen that good portion, keep sitting there—not in fear, but in trust.
Keep learning. Keep asking. Keep searching the Scriptures.
When He teaches you, listen. When He corrects you, receive it. And when He gives you something to carry, carry it faithfully.
We don't have to be afraid of learning. We don't have to be afraid of questions. And we don't have to be afraid of sitting at the feet of Jesus.
Mary did it.
And Jesus said she had chosen well.
So sit down, sister. There is still food on the table. 🖤