Everything But The Needle

        A servant was once sent to a carpeted house by his master to find a needle that had fallen onto the carpet. He set out to accomplish this task with one guiding thought: He would only keep his mind alert for a shiny object. Upon arrival at the house, he saw a sign at the door requiring all visitors to take off their shoes prior to entry. He complied and proceeded to open the door to the living room.

To his dismay, the floor was covered with roofing nails and quarters from wall to wall. This made the task all the more daunting but the servant was determined to complete his assignment. Before he took another step into the room, he acknowledged a looming thought: “If I try walking into this room, my feet will be turned into mush by all the nails! Furthermore, I have little chance of noticing the needle with all these shiny quarters. I will therefore pick up all the roofing nails and all the quarters first, and thus give myself a sporting chance to spot the needle.”

He began to collect the nails and coins, and though the thought of finding that needle continued to nag him, he kept reminding himself of the risk involved with not following his earlier thoughts. Several hours later, he reached the opposite end of the room with bags full of coins and nails. He sat down, letting out a contented sigh, only to see his master at the door. The master, having awaited his servant’s return for far too long, requested that he hand over the needle. The servant could only look to the ground as he realized he had collected everything but the needle.

We are not very different from this servant. We are willing to admit that we have been placed on earth for a purpose. We know that God has required us to seek Him FIRST and then have him add ALL THESE THINGS unto us. However, many a time we have enough time in our day for everything and everyone except God. He becomes as diminished to our spirit as a needle is to our eyes. We want to praise Him but we also want to avoid troubles,such as debt , so rather than seek Him who supplies our needs, we focus on working to earn the money that seemingly covers our needs. Instead of praying to the Author of favor, we try to please people so they’ll do us a favor. Rather than read His Word for understanding and discernment, we call our friends and see if they can help us understand our issues and suggest solutions.

If we look to our circumstances, our hard work and time spent on the hustle appears to be with good reason. Nevertheless, we know how badly that formula works out, so let us remember that while we can spend our time being busy and accomplishing much, we still have assignments that mean much more. Let us look to God FIRST in order to receive guidance on that which we should focus on.