By: Steve Wilmot
Two Kentucky farmers who owned horse racing stables developed a keen rivalry over the years. One spring, each of them entered a horse in a local steeplechase. One farmer thought a professional rider might help him outdo his friend, so he hired a crack jockey.
The two horses were leading the race at the last fence, but it proved too tough for them.
Both horses fell and unseated their riders. The calamity didn’t rattle the professional jockey. He quickly remounted and won the race.
After the race, the jockey found the farmer who had hired him fuming with rage. “What’s the matter?” the jockey asked. “I won, didn’t I?”
“You won all right,” roared the farmer, “but you won the race on the wrong horse!” I wonder when we get to the end of our lives if we’ll hear God tell us the same thing. Will he say we lived our entire lives on the wrong horse chasing the wrong things — things too small?
On April 14, 1912, at 10 o’clock at night, the Titanic crashed into an iceberg in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Four hours later, it sank.
One woman in a lifeboat asked if she could go back to her room. The sailors gave her three minutes. She hurried down the corridors and through the gambling room piled ankle-deep in money. In her room, her treasures awaited her, but she snatched three oranges instead and hurried back to the lifeboat.
One hour earlier, she would have unquestionably chosen diamonds over oranges. But in the face of death, what was valuable became crystal clear.
Like this lady, sometimes we lose track of what matters until God sends a crisis to yank us from the mundane into something so much bigger.
For the twelve disciples, it was the death and resurrection of Jesus. Before Pentecost, they bought into the common belief that when Messiah came, he would overthrow the existing government and restore Israel to world domination.
But after the resurrection, they discovered such a hope was way too small. God had something so much bigger in mind.
For us, it may be the loss of a job or a home, a life-threatening health issue, a divorce, an estranged child, or a death in the family that finally slaps us in the face. Then everything comes into focus.
“I’ve been living my life pursuing things too small. Things that aren’t important when it’s all said and done. It’s time to make a change.”
What are the too small things that blind us to what really matters? Listen to God identify some.
Matthew 6.19-20 — Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Nothing wrong with having stuff but chasing it without chasing heavenly treasure is chasing things too small.
1 Peter 3.3-4 — Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God (NLT).
Nothing wrong with looking attractive, but to set your focus on outer beauty while neglecting inner beauty is running after things too small.
1 Timothy 4.8 — Exercise daily in God — no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever (MSG).
Nothing wrong with losing weight, exercising, and getting fit. But dieting into a size 4 or exercising into a muscle-bound specimen while you neglect soul care is racing after things too small.
1 Peter 1.24-25 — People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever (NLT).
Admit it. No matter how beautiful you are, you’ll get wrinkles and die someday. No matter how much you accomplish in your career, nobody will remember much about it or you after you’re gone. It’s chasing things too small.
What are you living your life for — things too small or eternal things? It’s not a question of either/or. It’s a question of priority. What should come first before everything else? What will last? What’s more important in the end?
A child raised a blood-curdling scream because he had shoved his hand into the opening of an expensive Chinese vase and couldn’t pull it out.
Parents and neighbors tugged with all their might and coated his hand with grease, but to no avail. There was nothing left to do but break the beautiful, expensive vase.
As the heap of broken pieces lay there, it became clear why the child had been so hopelessly stuck. His little fist grasped and wouldn’t let go of a penny he had spied on the vase’s bottom.
What a picture of how many people live their lives. They cling to things that won’t matter in the end while neglecting those that will. Hunting for things too small.
God, open our eyes today. Reveal to us if we’re chasing things too small. If we’re living for things that won’t matter in the end. And if we are, show them to us and what you want us to do about it. Above all, may we chase you first.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.