c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of RNS)

UNDATED _ Dear Martha:

Well, girl, you have really done it now. From what I hear, going public is about as big as it gets on Earth. And you did it all on your own.

Heaven knows you have been as easy a case as I’ve ever had. I’ve mostly sat back and watched you work like crazy. God gave you some nice talents, but I have never seen anyone do so much with what they were given. And since I am all wings in the kitchen, I mostly just tried to stay out of your way.

(I will admit I had something to do with a certain angel food cake on one of your first shows that was on its way to becoming a torte … )

But anyway, you might want to sit down in that nice overstuffed chintz armchair before I go any further. You see, God has this really radical idea for you (he’s got a million of them) and he thought maybe I could break it to you.

Ever since Terry came to join us, God has been looking for someone with talent and energy to continue what she started. She was really the one who came up with the idea, but she and God are so close it’s sometimes hard to know who has the idea first.

Terry (I think you called her Mother Teresa) was reminding us about your namesake in the Bible. She was talking about how that Martha was always busy fixing meals and cleaning the house and then when Jesus showed up he gave all the attention to her sister Mary who seemed like a real slacker. You can see why that ticked her off.

But that was something of a turning point for Martha. You see, she was busy with all the wrong things. Maybe you see where this is going ….

Anyway, now that you’ve gone public and proven yourself to all those critics, God thought it would be a really good thing if you’d go private. Now hear me out.

See God knows you are getting pretty tired of making petit fours and even he has run out of new inspiration for beeswax candles. The other day I heard God say he was really sorry he had ever come up with pesto, so you can see how serious things are.

Before God ordered a scourge on the world’s pine nuts, Terry suggested he give you a chance. He really liked the idea, so now it’s up to you.

God wants you to take all your creativity and energy and talent and use it to help fix some of the world’s problems. No, he’s not talking about the horror of windows without valances. He’s talking about people who have no windows, children who don’t have parents, the elderly who have only memories.

We all think you are just the one to come up with a hundred new recipes to transform a soup kitchen. And we know some kids down there that really need someone to gold leaf their dreams and add a little confetti to their lives.

Martha, what you could do to remove tarnish from the lives of the elderly! I just know you’d have some of those folks dancing again.

God says you can keep your television show. You can even continue your magazine. But Martha, why don’t you think about mobilizing all those ladies who have the time to bake seven layer cakes into community activists? Show them how to help at a homeless shelter. Give them 10 ideas for better tutoring.

Teach them how to build houses for the homeless. Sure, you can throw in some decorative molding and textured wallpaper. And God really wants folks in the inner city to have some pretty curtains.

Martha, Martha, I hope you know how proud we all are of you. You really are something. But honey, here’s your chance to really change the world. Stop spending all that God-given energy on faux finishes and trompe l’oeil.

Please, Martha, show the world that you really know a good thing.

Angie,

Your Guardian Angel

DEA END BOURKE