Eastern Airlines flight 401 was flying to Miami. As they began the landing approach one of the pilots noticed the light indicator for the landing gear was not working. Unsure about the landing gear they asked the tower to put them in a holding pattern. They turn on the autopilot and then began to try to fix the problem. They pulled off the panel, fiddled with the controls, and even left the cockpit to work out what was going on. All this focus on a burned-out light bulb kept them from noticing the plane was little by little getting lower and lower. The autopilot had been inadvertently disconnected. By the time they realized it, it was too late. The plane crashed into the Everglades killing 101 people.
Could this be
happing to the church?
There are times we
get so focused on one issue or one problem or one activity that we forget to
look around and see if we are still on course. We go into autopilot mode and
assume everything is being taken care of. In our effort to fix one issue we
forget to look at other important matters.
We read about Jesus condemning the Pharisees for this in
Matthew 23:23:
"Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and
cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice
and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done
without neglecting the others.”
Their tithing was an important
aspect of the law. But they got to the point where they thought if they were right
on this one issue, they would be right. You can get it right in one area and
still be deficient. Overfocusing on one area can lead to overall failure.
We need to make sure
that we are not neglecting the minor things or the major things. We need to
have a balanced approach. Keeping our focus on where it should be and not being
fixated on one thing to neglect of others.
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