When my children were younger, we were sitting on the pier one cold and windy afternoon when my daughter’s flip flop fell into the chilly lake. My youngest son, who was about five years old, fell into sheer panic. He screamed and cried and demanded that I spring into action to rescue this cheap worn-out flip flop that was slowly floating beyond our grasp. I ran to the house, grabbed a net, and chased the floating flip flop along the shoreline until I captured the shoe and brought it to safety, setting my son’s mind at ease.
That was a lot of work to appease a little boy who couldn’t grasp that the flip flop didn’t need rescuing. To him it was as important as if a small child or pet had fallen into the lake. And if I hadn’t brought the flop to safety, he may have been scarred for life.
Are you chasing after things that don’t matter? Are you working hard to maintain things that aren’t meant to last, or rescuing things that really have no inherent worth? Are you giving your love and attention to help the floating flip flops of this world, or are you helping where it really matters: are you reaching out to minister to people?