A favorite expression of our preacher when teaching class or preaching is “he doesn’t want to go chasing rabbits.” In other words, he wanted to stay focused on his goal or topic and not get sidetracked into other topics.
It is very easy to become so distracted with other matters in life that we forget what we originally started out to do. Life has a way of doing that, and the devil has his hand in it as well. Nothing he likes better than to get all of us distracted with the temporal.
However, God wants us focused on the eternal destination of our souls and work toward that end.
“A young preacher went to an older preacher and asked him what to do to draw a crowd and to draw a crowd and to make a congregation grow. He said, “I have tried philosophy, history, book reviews and even politics, but the people won’t come. What shall I do?”
The old man kindly responded, “Now suppose you try the gospel”
In writing, pick up the pen or touch the computer. In farming, plant the seed. In merchandising, sell. In sheep ranching, shepherd the sheep. In mechanics, wield the wrench. In transportation, move. In banking, get money and lend it out. In social work help somebody. In baseball, hit the ball. In education teach. In building and maintaining a church preach the gospel.
The point is – no matter what the cherished reason for a group’s existence is and the major goal they have, unless they are watchful they may get diverted and bogged down in so many other matters that they lose sight of the original intent. This is one of the reasons people fail in various endeavors. It was said of a man whose business failed. “He got so involved in other interests that he let up on what supported his business.” If a school gets so entangled in new projects that it gives only minor attention to the basics, then a new crop of students will come forth who can barely read, write and figure. And if a church (which is a spiritual body) gets so absorbed in material matters that it assigns the gospel only to a back pew, then in time the other pews shall go empty.” ~ Leroy Brownlow
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)
“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” (I Corinthians 9:24)
“And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
(Habakkuk 2:2-3)
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” ~ Yogi Berra
Eileen Light