Keys to the Kingdom By Carolyn Tucker
Weird Toothpaste
I just love it when someone tells a good story on themselves. I was visiting with a friend recently and she told me that once when she was brushing her teeth she noticed that the toothpaste was really weird. It didn’t taste right nor did it have the usual texture. After some quick investigation, she discovered that she had applied Desitin on her toothbrush! And then when I retold this funny incident to another friend, she told me that her husband had spread Preparation H on his father’s dentures instead of Fixodent! What’s this world coming to?
I think it all boils down to the fact that we live in a world of constant distractions and, if we aren’t paying attention, we’ll be caught doing some off-the-wall stuff! As Christ followers, we’re to pay careful and focused attention on what we’re doing and how we‘re living. John Mark shares some insightful light for us: “I will guard against the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things that creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, causing it to become fruitless” (Mark 4:19).
Every age/era has its own unique distractions and we‘re supposed to look out for them. When my late husband would be driving (and not paying attention to the road ahead), I would sometimes say, “Look out” in order to get him to see what was happening right in front of him. We also need to be careful of those “other things” that can worm their way into our lives and take up so much time that we can’t/won’t read and study God’s Word. The only way His Word becomes fruitless is when it is either not known or disregarded. When believers put into practice what we learn from God’s Word we, ourselves, become fruitful. Whether we’re fruitless or a fruitloop, God can help us be overcomers.
Philippians 1:10 is a powerful scripture for me. I have it underlined in red and highlighted in purple: “I cannot do everything so I choose those things which are vital and excellent and of real value. I have wisdom and I am able to distinguish the highest and the best things for me to do.” Most individuals are gifted in multiple ways, so we must choose what we’re the best at and focus on those gifts. Personally, I don’t have any gifting as an artist, athlete, or guitarist, so I chose to focus on playing the piano and singing. Even as a kid, I didn’t allow myself to get distracted by trying to develop a gift I wasn’t created to do.
Whether you’re athletic or not, you’re running in a spiritual race everyday. Apostle Paul writes that the believer’s race has distractions and we’re to keep our eyes on the prize. Before GPS, we used to have to pull off the highway occasionally to check the map and make sure we were headed in the right direction. Once, when my parents were in the prime of their life and traveling between California and Missouri, Dad took a break and slept in the backseat while Mom drove. When he woke up and looked out the window, he immediately said, “You’re going the wrong way.“ We need to pause and check our spiritual map (God’s Word) to see if we’re straying off course.
The Key: Believers have to pay attention and steer clear of distractions which can cause wrong turns and weird toothpaste encounters.