The story is told of a farmer who one day decided to plow the south forty acres in his field. However, his tractor needed oil, so he started for the barn to get it, but on the way, he noticed that the pigs hadn’t been fed.
As he neared the corncrib, he saw a pile of sacks which reminded him that the potatoes were sprouting. On the way to the potato pit, he passed the woodpile and remembered that the kitchen stove was burning low and needed wood.
While picking up the wood, he saw that one of his chickens was ailing, so he dropped the wood to tend to the chicken ….. and so distraction after distraction came along until the end of the day — and he still hadn’t oiled the tractor or plowed the south forty.
Dear reader, the only way we will ever “get to the barn” of Christian service, is to get our priorities in order (Matthew 6:33). The farmer in the above story didn’t have any priorities — he just “rolled with the flow” of events occurring around him.
Is our Christian life ever like this trip to the barn? Do we ever have grand visions of achieving great service, but the service never gets done? Do we have too many distractions, allowing them to interfere with our goal of being a productive servant in God’s kingdom?
There’s no question that our life contains plenty of pigs to feed, wood to cut and chickens to doctor, but we can’t allow them to get in our way of serving God.
If we will make the commitment to serve God (Joshua 24:14-15) and go the “extra mile” (Matthew 5:41), God will make a way for us to “get to the barn.”
—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
While picking up the wood, he saw that one of his chickens was ailing, so he dropped the wood to tend to the chicken ….. and so distraction after distraction came along until the end of the day — and he still hadn’t oiled the tractor or plowed the south forty.
Dear reader, the only way we will ever “get to the barn” of Christian service, is to get our priorities in order (Matthew 6:33). The farmer in the above story didn’t have any priorities — he just “rolled with the flow” of events occurring around him.
Is our Christian life ever like this trip to the barn? Do we ever have grand visions of achieving great service, but the service never gets done? Do we have too many distractions, allowing them to interfere with our goal of being a productive servant in God’s kingdom?
There’s no question that our life contains plenty of pigs to feed, wood to cut and chickens to doctor, but we can’t allow them to get in our way of serving God.
If we will make the commitment to serve God (Joshua 24:14-15) and go the “extra mile” (Matthew 5:41), God will make a way for us to “get to the barn.”
—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
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