PRIORITIES: When Push Comes to Shove!

THIS PROBLEM WON’T GO AWAY: [Psalm 119:143]

The story is told of a duck hunter who’s black lab, “Phideaux,” had been trained to do exactly the right thing in virtually every instance.

Seems the hunter and a friend were out duck hunting one early spring morning and a sizable flock of birds flew over the lake. Both hunters simultaneously shouldered their weapons and fired. Two birds dropped from the sky and hit the water at the same time. Phideaux leaped from the blind and swam to the two ducks. Sensing one bird was just wounded, he raced toward it an retrieved it for his master. Instantly, he returned to the water and retrieved the dead fowl.

The friend of the dog’s owner said, “How did he know to do that?” The dog’s master said I trained him to know which birds were not going anywhere and to retrieve the others first.

Emergencies in ministry are like that. Those of us in ministry would do well to learn this principle: recognize early which emergencies aren’t going anywhere, then work on the others. You can always return to an emergency (read: opportunity) that’s not going anywhere.

GUIDANCE: What Every Operating System Needs

A GUIDE SURE AND TRUE: [Hebrews 6:20]

Imran Vittachi, in a Post-Dispatch report, tells of Michael Hingson who is a World Trade Center (North Tower, 78th floor) survivor. Mr. Hingson is convinced the bond between him and his four-legged savior is what saved him.

Hingson, blind since birth, has depended upon his guide dog Roselle for several years now; Roselle is a 4-year-old yellow Labrador retriever. Hingson is quoted as having said, "A guide dog and its user have a close, very deep-trusting relationship - we have to, because when I leave and go somewhere … I'm trusting [her] with my life."

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2002, Hingson was preparing to lead a training seminar for a client. At the time Hingson was a regional sales manager for Quantum ATL, a data protection company. After a colleague alerted the room that flames were coming out of the building between the 94th and 98th floors, Hingson phoned his wife, Karen. He told her that an explosion had occurred and that the building was being evacuated.

Roselle then led him calmly to the stairwell. "I didn't have time to worry about what might happen," he said, describing the mood in the stairwell as tense but without pandemonium. Hingson didn't hear the explosion at 9:03 a.m., when the second plane struck the South Tower.

Amid the double-file exodus of evacuating workers in the stairwell, Roselle faithfully tugged him to each landing, then waited for Hingson's command to move on. On the way, he heard words of encouragement from firefighters climbing the stairs. He still doesn’t know whether any of them survived. At about 9:45 a.m., Hingson and his savior reached street level – almost an hour after starting down the stairs.

We also have a Guide, One who has gone before us, behind the veil, to prepare a way of escape. He is coming again to retrieve us before this temporal world bursts into flame and collapses. He will guide us on the Way to eternal safety. The bond we have with our Savior is secure in Him. He is the Son of God. We trust Him with our eternal lives.

We the trump sounds, we are to be ready to leave, immediately, there’ll be no time to phone anyone. But, for the time being, we’re to be about our daily affairs, in the same way as Michael Hingson.