Last week I started a series about how the Christian life is similar to a business meetings.  I mentioned the four following reasons meetings fail:

• Lack of Focus – Meetings are often plagued with confusion and no one can seem to focus on the same topic. New issues pop up before the previous one is settled or assigned. It becomes a list of grievances about the project.
• Rabbit Trail – The topic is constantly being pulled away from the main idea by insignificant details (you have heard the phrase “down a rat hole” and “off on a rabbit trail”).
• Frozen – Only the meeting facilitator talks – the group is frozen with silence (no participation).
• Life of the Party – Everyone in the group is talking and laughing, flippantly merry, refusing to consider the topic as important.

I discussed Lack of Focus last week and this blog will discuss Rabbit Trail, which has some similarities to last week’s blog.

Rabbit Trail

As I stated above, meetings often fail when the focus shifts away from the main topic and continues to be diluted by insignificant details.  The main topic is carried, as we say, down a rabbit trail.

Jesus mentioned the Pharisees tendency to focus on the minor and give the major little emphasis when he stated in Matthew 23:24:  “You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.”

I always thought that meant you have a difficult time swallowing a gnat but easily swallow a camel.  But it really refers to straining a gnat out of a beverage – so what he is saying is you focus in on the small object and diligently work at it.  That is, you see the gnat floating in the drink and work at straining it out of the cup.  How many of you have found a bug floating in your cup and in working to get it out, forgotten everything else going on around you?

Straining out a gnat, to me, can include being deceived into working for my salvation.  Sure, I know that I am saved by the grace of God.  But Satan has a way of getting his hooks into us so that before we know it we are driven by doing.  We are feeling proud and we are not aware of what is going on around us.  We lose sight of the big picture – give God the glory, love God and our neighbor, lead others to Christ, make disciples of all – because we are focused on saving ourselves.  Of course some of our activities look like big picture items, but we generally don’t hear God’s voice when we are doing them.  Because we are busy and we’ve got work to do.

Believe me, I’m NOT saying don’t work for God.  I believe we should be doing more.  What I am saying is, check your motives with God.  He is faithful to get us on the right track.

Lord, Thank you for your grace and for your salvation.  Check my motives, Lord.  When I slip down that rabbit trail of self-righteousness, show me so that I am not wasting my time and yours.  I want you to get the glory for everything you use me to accomplish!

(Part 3 of Life is Like a Meeting – Frozen coming soon)

Karen Sleeth

Karen Sleeth has lived in North Carolina for 27 years. Karen is asking the hard questions in 2011, trusting God for the answers (even when they are uncomfortable), relying on faith in the face of EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN, and believing Him for miracles because he promised Mark 16:17