You Need to Read This First !
Pastor Calvin Cook
February 4, 2026
My email accounts, text messages, messenger, media, and advertising is constantly bombarding me in what seems like every minute of the day. My phone is always chiming, dinging, and chirping with some new communication. I know yours is more than likely the same.
When I finally get to my messages sometimes much later in the day, I read quickly through the list to see who the sender is and the subject line and I confess that most times I don’t even read the communication or give it much attention. I recently received an email that said in the subject line “You Need to Read This First !” I confess it paused me and being a student of marketing and branding as one of my passions, I clicked to open the email.
I found a carefully crafted message telling me that without AI (Artificial Intelligence) I would get no where in life and be left in the dust as the email described. The email was so craftly written that I spent some time reading it and trying to understand something that I struggle with : technology, new things, new ways, how to work through a sea of changes and challenges.
Through out the last few days I returned to this subject line in my thoughts and the words “You Need”. I thought about and prayed about and asked the Holy Spirit to pray for me that I truly know what it is that I need. Now the common Sunday School answer would be “you need God”. I agree ! We need more and more of God, even when we subconsciously resist more of God, God’s guidance and direction and the desire God has to be in relationship with us. But why is it that we can’t confess what it is that we truly need.
My heart and mind drifted back to the story of Mary and Martha that can be found in the Gospel of Luke – chapter 10. A quick summary of the story finds two sisters who were preparing their home, the community, even their soul for a visit by Jesus. Often the question arises as to whether we are a Mary or Martha. Martha who chooses to spend all her energy on the preparations and hosting, cooking, making sure everything was right. Mary her sister made a decision to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen and be absorbed in the teaching of Jesus.
The story goes that Martha became very upset that she found her sister Mary in that position of submission while she was basically wearing herself out. Martha lashes out at Mary and Jesus speaks and brings peace into the situation. Here is what Jesus said : “Martha, Martha: the Lord answered “you are worried and upset about many things, but few thangs are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42 (paraphrased NIV)
Returning to the email subject “you need to read this first” doesn’t seem so important and critical as I think on this lesson from scripture. But these thoughts beckon me to the place where I have to ask the question “What is it that I really need.” Does what I think I need really matter? Do I have a desire first and foremost to know that the first thing I need is a relationship with God and an understanding of who God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit truly is and how a relationship with Jesus and sitting at his feet, focusing on His teaching, and hearing the call truly is the needful thing that we all need.
Yet our lives seem captivated, distracted, and complex. We are drawn into express lives and quick fixes that keep us most days from even knowing what that one needful thing truly is.
Matthew 6:33 gives the best instruction “Seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you” (NIV)
First things first, sit at the feet of Jesus. Open your Bible and read his word, pray without ceasing, worship with all your heart – may we all make the first thing God before there was anything else the main thing of our life.
I will be praying for and with you and invite you to join me in a meditative state of praying “Lord, quiet our striving and center our hearts again on You. Strip away what distracts us, and teach us to choose the one thing that cannot be taken away – be present in my life and soul today and may I be drawn away from what distracts me from you – thank you Jesus – may I experience forgiveness, redemption, and new life in you and only in you. Amen
Thoughts from the Edges 
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