One beautiful spring afternoon my neighbor, Roger, and I had a backyard, over-the-fence, conversation, like “Tim the Tool Man“, had every week with his neighbor, Wilson (“Home Improvement”, TV series, 1991-1999). Roger didn’t yell, “Hi ho neighbor!” He typically just asked, “What’s going on?” I told Roger, “I’ve been thinking about having the tree cut down. It’s huge! It’s probably about seventy-feet tall, and if a wind ever blows it over it would do some serious damage no matter what direction it falls. But on the other hand, I hate to cut it down. I like the looks of it and I would really miss the shade, but it’s taking over the whole yard. The swimming pool is completely shaded by two o’clock in the afternoon so the water stays so cold I never get in.” Then Roger responded in typical “Wilson” fashion, “So Loren, what you are telling me is that you are missing out on the best things in your yard for that”.
I’m reminded of a Biblical tale of two sisters. Martha and Mary were sisters and Jesus was coming to their home to visit. As the story goes, “Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His words. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me.’ And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part…” (Luke 10: 37-42). Sometimes we miss out on the “good part”, the “best things”, when we are preoccupied with other things.
Sometimes we miss out on the “best things” because we don’t want to let go of the sure things, the familiar things. We are afraid to color outside the lines or live outside the box. I’m reminded of a song by Casting Crowns: “All my life I longed to be a hero; my sword raised high running to the battle… So why am I still standing here. Why am I still holding back from You? I hear you calling me out into deeper waters, but I settle on the shallow end… But I don’t want to live that way. I don’t want to look back some day, on a life that never stepped across the line…” (“What if I Gave Everything).
Sometimes we miss out on the “best things” because of our wanderlust for great things. Hugh Prather wrote, “If I had only… forgotten visions of future greatness and looked at the green things and the buildings and reached out to those around me and smelled the air and ignored the forms and self-styled obligations and heard the rain on the roof and put my arms around my wife, “(“Notes to Myself”). “The Eagles’” iconic song puts it this way, “Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses, you’ve been out riding fences for so long now… Now it seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table, but you only want the ones that you can’t get… come down from your fences; open the gate… You better let someone love you before it’s too late,” (“Desperado”, 1973).
Sometimes we miss out on the best things because we vainly and futiliy strive to have “the best of both worlds”. In the words of our Lord and savior Christ Jesus, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon,” (Matthew 6:24). Lysa TerKeurst, author and teacher, suggests, “Today’s choices become tomorrow’s circumstances… whenever you say yes to something, there is less of you for something else. Make sure your yes is worth the less… the decisions you make determine the schedule you keep. The schedule you keep determines the life you live. And how you live your life determines how you spend your soul. So, this isn’t just about finding time. This is about honoring God with the time we have,” (“The Best Yes: Making Wise Decisions in the Midst of Endless Demands”).
“Be careful of harking back to what you once were when God wants you to become something you’ve never been,” (Oswald Chambers wrote, “My Utmost for His Highest”, June 8th).
Loren Hardin is a social worker with SOMC-Hospice and can be reached at (740) 357-6091 or at lorenhardin53@gmail.com. You can order Loren’s book, “Straight Paths: Insights for living from those who have finished the course” at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.