Staying On Task

It is hard to remember your task is to drain the swamp when you are up to your neck in alligators. It can be equally hard to complete the task when you discover the swamp is wider, deeper and more difficult to navigate than you originally thought. Staying on task can be a real challenge as distractions pull us away from the finish line to the road blocks and challenges.

It doesn't necessarily take negative barriers to keep us from staying on task, often it is just the fact that we have so many options and opportunities. When I was young, there were chores to do but there also was hunting, fishing, swimming, horse riding and horsing around in general. It was hard for a boy who might have been diagnosed ADD today. My Dad, by the way, didn't give me Riddalin, he chose an alternate treatment plan called paddling. It was a topical application that had pretty good results for limited periods. He applied it as often and liberally as needed.

Regardless of the barriers or distractions, staying on task is absolutely vital. If we do not stay on task, the job is not done and the results are left to ruin. Getting sidetracked in college means giving away an opportunity to better yourself or advance your career. Getting sidetracked in rearing children can result in children without direction or a moral compass. Getting sidetracked in your marriage can result in divorce. Getting sidetracked in your walk with Christ can result in a walk down the path to destruction (cf Matt 7:13-14).

Solomon admonished, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might" (Eccl 9:10). And Paul instructs, "Now finish the work, so that your eagerness to do it may be matched by your completion of it" (2 Cor,8:11).  The goal is not reach in the intention or the engaging but in the completion.  Therefore, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Gal 6:9).

While the ends do not necessarily justify the means, the means only have value when we stay on task and carry them out to the end. Jus' Say'n.