For the past few months, whenever I pull out of the parking space at work, my brakes squeaked. When I pulled out of the garage every morning – they SQUEAKED! It’s one of those sounds, like fingernails on a chalkboard – that just goes right through you. I mentioned it to my daughter, Dianne and my son-in-law, David said that he’d take care of me. (God bless David!) Anyway, yesterday, they came to visit with tools and new rotors, break pads, etc…. to fix my car. Only to find out that there’s NOTHING wrong with my brakes. The squeak is from all of the dust/mud/yuck that has attached to my car – it comes from living a mile down a gravel road. Annoying – yes! Dangerous – nope!
This got me to thinking about how easily we often get distracted by “squeaks.” We lose our focus. We go off on tangents which in the long run, will have no impact on our eternal destiny unless we make them an “issue.” We fail to keep “the main thing – the main thing.” Jesus knew his “mission” early in life. When He was 12 years old, His parents found Him in the temple, and He said unto them, “Know ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49) The Pharisees were constantly trying to badger Him and question Him, but He told Zacchaeus, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) He didn’t get distracted by the “squeaks.” He kept the “main thing – the main thing.”
How about you? Do you let sports, the river, or hunting season distract you from attending worship with your church family? Compare the time that you spend watching TV with the time you spend “in” God’s Word each day. Do you let the TV, the radio, or the internet keep you from reading and studying God’s Word? Do you get caught up in “world events” and politics? Are you so busy trying to “make a living,” that you’ve forgotten to “make a life?” John said, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. . .And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” (I John 2:15 & 17)
Friends, may we not let the “squeaks” in life distract us from our mission here on earth, which is to “love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, souls, mind, and strength,” (Luke 10:27) and if we “love Him, we will keep His commandments. (John 14:15) God bless, Courtney
Agree