Yogi Berra once quipped “you can observe a lot by just watching”. So many of his sayings make me laugh, but this one is surprisingly simple, humorous, and somehow intellectually deep (maybe?).
I once had a young trainee that was sent to take leaf tissue samples on a large tomato farm. He was a hard worker eager to complete the task, so he began very early in an effort to complete the entire task that day, which was sampling about 500 total acres. Each sample would be pulled by irrigation zone, so it was about 25 samples and each sample would be made up of a random sample of leaves from about 50 to 75 individual plants across that acreage.
Needless to say, it was a lot to accomplish in a single day, but he did it. Later that night as he made his way to his hotel room he called me to let me know the samples were done and they would be sent to the lab for analysis the next morning. I congratulated him on his hard work and steadfast effort, and then I asked him a question. I asked, “how did the tomatoes look?” He didn’t respond, so I asked, “how did the plants look, were they full with good color, etc.?”
Silence. Then he said after a brief interlude “I don’t know”. He said “I was so busy getting the samples I never really looked at the plants.” And in that moment we both knew we had set the priorities in the wrong place. I led him to get the work done, and by doing the work neither of us now knew what the 500 acres of tomatoes really looked like. To use Yogi’s quote, he wasn’t watching and as such could offer no valuable observation.
Our faith journey can become this way, where we set up priorities in our lives that seem correct, but aren’t. Another quote many have heard comes from Arnold Zack, friend of former U. S. Senator Paul Tsongas, who wrote in correspondence to his friend “no one on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time on my business.’”
And yet, how many choose the business first? Setting the temporal priority over the eternal will get us out of balance, and cause us to really lose sight of what is most important. It also can wound others deeply, and yet it is common amongst us all.
Our verse for today is a reminder of one of the most common ways we set our priorities up incorrectly, so spend some time considering the full lesson to be learned-
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (Matthew 6:24, ESV)
Almighty and Most Merciful Father, we continuously prioritize the earthly over the eternal, please forgive us. May we find strength in Thee to resist the distortion of priority, to Thy glory and our necessity; through Christ Jesus our Lord, who with Thee and the Holy Ghost art One God, world without end. AMEN.