Not The Worst Thing That Happened

On October 8^th, 1871, the deadliest fire in U.S History occurred. If you were to google the date you see results about the Great Chicago Fire. For 31 hours the flames burned killing 250 people destroying 18,000 buildings and leaving a 100,000 homeless.

But that fire wasn’t it.

Just over 250 miles away in the northern Wisconsin lumber town of Peshtigo fire burned the entire city to ashes killing somewhere between 1,200 to 2,500 people. In fact, that day there were 5 major fires in the region, fueled by unusually high winds and drought conditions. However since Chicago was a major city and it started first, it is the one most people know about.

That happens a lot. One danger gets overshadowed by another, an easily perceived problem receives attention over a more reclusive one, a promoted issue takes precedence over a less talked about one. What might be a much bigger threat is set on the backburner because everyone is talking about something else.

I think we need to have some form of issue triage in our lives. I see people get really worked up over problems that while important are not near the immediate threat some others to their immediate lives. Churches often get fixated over an issue to the neglect of other important matters.

I think that is the brilliance we see in the church handling of the food distribution issue in Acts 6. While they know something is to be done they also know that in doing that the apostles could be detained from taking care of their important duties. Much like Jethro taught Moses in Exodus 18, every dispute doesn’t have to move to crisis if it’s handled in a timely manner in the right way.

When we face issues let’s make sure we try to put them in perceptive and order. What might be the hot topic may not be the deadliest threat.

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