Pay Attention

I was on my way to the pediatrician’s office, running late as usual, when I looked in the rearview mirror and saw flashing lights.

I was genuinely confused when the officer pulled me over. I hadn’t been speeding on the interstate. And I was stopped at a red light when I noticed the police car. Had I done something wrong?

Why, yes, I had. Apparently, two miles back, when the officer started following me, I was driving 57 mph in a 40 mph zone.

Only I didn’t know it, and I hadn’t bothered to look in the mirror for the past five minutes. I was in so much of a hurry that by the time I pulled over, I wasn’t even in the same city where I had been speeding!

The officer was polite, I was embarrassed, and I drove away with my first (and only!) speeding ticket.

All because I was rushing around and not paying attention.

Does this ever happen spiritually? You get so busy with life – maybe even with ministering to other people’s needs – that you stop paying attention to your soul. Maybe you’ve caught glimpses of the Holy Spirit’s flashing lights in your rearview mirror, but you didn’t have time to pull over and let Him speak to you. Before long, you’ve gone two miles, ten miles, a hundred miles, at breakneck speed, and you don’t even know there’s a problem.

There’s a sober warning about this in Jesus’s parable of the sower.

You know the story: a man sows some seed, and it falls on four types of soil: the path, the rocky ground, the thorns, and the good soil. Each type of soil represents the types of hearts that receive God’s Word. (If you’re not familiar with the story or if you just need a refresher, check out Mark 4:1-20.)

The third type of soil is the one that scares me: “And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19, ESV)

Are there any cares in your life? Any riches? Any desires for other things?

They pop up every day in my life. And each one is fighting to choke out my relationship with Christ.

Dear Sister, please remember: your soul is more important than your to-do list. More important than your schedule. More important than your bank account. More important than what people think about you. Your soul is more important than any earthly concern, any earthly treasure, and any earthly desire.

Instead of rushing,

let’s pay attention.