The other day I found myself feeling negative about all the negativity in the world. Then I laughed. “You can do better than that, goofball,” I said to myself (with self-love, of course.)

There are plenty of things to be negative about, no doubt about that, but we whine and complain about small stuff a lot. We can get into an all-consuming blame-fest toward the manufacturer of our new toaster that doesn’t quite measure up. And negativity begets negativity. We can get so tangled up in toaster-thinking that we’re offended by everything…and lose sight of what’s really important. It’s like something I read recently. “Stop being offended by a Facebook post, piece of art, people displaying affection, or what someone said to you. Be offended by war, poverty, greed and injustice.” — Sue Fitzmaurice (Facebook posts can be pretty offensive, but I get her point.)

This all reminds me of the biblical story of Mary and Martha. Jesus was hanging out at their house and Martha was fretting over dinner prep, so he said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one…” (to prioritize listening to him over a thousand distractions).

I can relate to Martha’s tendency to sweat the details, but maybe she had gotten herself into a frenzy of negativity. It happens. It was keeping her from awareness of the Divine.

And robbing her of joy.

Seems Jesus was just inviting her to think about things differently.