“It will take him three seconds.”
That was the most common guess on Sunday morning when I asked, “How long do you think it will take James to run from here to the back of the auditorium?”
I had asked one of the kids from the congregation to join me at the front during my sermon. James is an athletic little boy and the hall down which he was to run is not that long.
“Maybe it will take him five seconds, at the most”, someone else said.
How long did it actually take?
Would you believe that more than 30 seconds later he still had not reached the end of the aisle?
How can that be? Why would it take more than 10 times as long as anyone guessed it would?
The answer is simple: I kept calling him back!
When I said, “Go!” James took off like a shot. When he got about half way down the aisle, I yelled, “Whoa! Stop! Come back!” A little confused, James started running back towards me. Then I told him to stop, turn around and run back the other way again. Then I told him to stop and come back. Finally, after about seven or eight changes in direction, James just quit. He just stood there staring at me, bewildered, and would not run anymore.
You cannot get anywhere when you keep changing directions. Even very short journeys are impossible to complete when you keep going back and forth.
Jesus, himself, often spoke about the need for a focus on one thing.
“A kingdom divided against itself will be ruined; and a house divided against itself will fall” (Luke 11:17).
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24).
Maybe my favorite picture concerning this principle comes from the pen of James when he writes, “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water” (verses 10-12).
God does not want our faith to be just one thing among many that compete for our attention. Rather, faith should be in the center of everything. It should affect our choices, our priorities, our values and how we live each day.
Conflicted and competing influences get us nowhere. We cannot run toward God and away from him at the same time.
That was the most common guess on Sunday morning when I asked, “How long do you think it will take James to run from here to the back of the auditorium?”
I had asked one of the kids from the congregation to join me at the front during my sermon. James is an athletic little boy and the hall down which he was to run is not that long.
“Maybe it will take him five seconds, at the most”, someone else said.
How long did it actually take?
Would you believe that more than 30 seconds later he still had not reached the end of the aisle?
How can that be? Why would it take more than 10 times as long as anyone guessed it would?
The answer is simple: I kept calling him back!
When I said, “Go!” James took off like a shot. When he got about half way down the aisle, I yelled, “Whoa! Stop! Come back!” A little confused, James started running back towards me. Then I told him to stop, turn around and run back the other way again. Then I told him to stop and come back. Finally, after about seven or eight changes in direction, James just quit. He just stood there staring at me, bewildered, and would not run anymore.
You cannot get anywhere when you keep changing directions. Even very short journeys are impossible to complete when you keep going back and forth.
Jesus, himself, often spoke about the need for a focus on one thing.
“A kingdom divided against itself will be ruined; and a house divided against itself will fall” (Luke 11:17).
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24).
Maybe my favorite picture concerning this principle comes from the pen of James when he writes, “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water” (verses 10-12).
God does not want our faith to be just one thing among many that compete for our attention. Rather, faith should be in the center of everything. It should affect our choices, our priorities, our values and how we live each day.
Conflicted and competing influences get us nowhere. We cannot run toward God and away from him at the same time.
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