Cleaning a Burning House

A couple weeks ago we bought new garage doors and openers to replace our dilapidated and nasty old doors. The door and opener for my side of our garage went up basically without a hitch. I have spent the last three days working on Ashley’s side. The stupid door just wouldn’t fit! It was to tall, it didn’t close properly, and it left a big gap around the top of the door. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure it out. I tried all sorts of jimmying with wood blocks and spacers to get the door to fit the tracks and the opening, but nothing.  So finally, I sat there without anymore ideas and, being the smart cookie I am, decided to do some measuring to see what is so different than the old door that used to be up there. Well, the door I was putting up was 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall, just like the one on my side that fit perfectly, but when I measured the old door I was replacing it was only 6 1/2 tall.

I spent three days trying all sorts of thing to get this stinkin garage door to fit and to work when all along it was to big for the space. The garage needed a smaller door so no matter what I tried to do to make it work, it wasn’t happening.

Boy, how many times does this happen in our Christian life. We spend a lot of time trying to be “a better” Christian and fixing little things about our life thinking that they will make our life more full,  fit better with what God wants, or help us find our purpose. Maybe we should first focus on the bigger picture of what God wants to do with our life. If our relationship and devotion to Christ is wavering no amount of fixing and cleaning up is going to fix that. Let us first focus on what we were designed for… to love, worship, and seek after Christ. Seek first the kingdom of Heaven, and then all those little things will follow after.

Doing it the other way around is ridiculous. It’s kinda like running back into a burning house to clean the living room. What’s the point?! It would probably be wise to focus on the fire that is burning your house to the ground first!

Don’t be a 7 foot tall garage door in a 6 1/2 tall garage, run after God!