Pay Attention

Last week I shared briefly about how I lost two windows out of my Excursion. I really didn’t explain how it happened. It happened because of user error.

I was at the ball field coaching our son’s ball team last Saturday. The first thought in many minds at this point of the story is, “Oh no, was it a foul ball?” I would love to blame it on a ball but, nope it wasn’t a foul ball. Practice had just ended and we loaded up to head back home. Austin asked me if he could roll the window down and I told him no because we would be home in a few minutes, let’s just get home. I started backing up and was stopped by a sudden stretching noise. I looked over towards the noise and realized I had backed up too close to a speed limit sign that I was parked too close too. So I pulled forward and that’s when it all happened. As I pulled forward I heard two distinct loud bangs, BOOM… BOOM. The sign popped my windows out as I was too close to it.

Austin got his windows rolled down.

Now I could blame several things here. I could blame the fact that I pulled out crooked to allow Butch Laidler room to pull out. I could blame the heat because it was just too hot to think. I could blame the kids for being in a hurry. I could blame the truck for being too darn big. And I suppose I could even blame the sign for being too darn small.

The fact remains, I did it because I was not paying attention. It was 100% my fault. But it got me thinking about a few things and I now realize that God allowed this to happen so I could share a valuable lesson with us.

The importance of Paying Attention is more valuable than many of us realize. Last Saturday, I was not paying attention and it ended up costing me. In life when we don’t pay attention to certain things it ends up costing us also.

We must be alert; we must pay attention to many things in life. When driving we must pay attention to what we are doing or else we’ll get a ticket, get in a wreck, or even miss our turn. We need to pay attention to our gages or we’ll run out of gas, oil, or could even over heat.

Spiritually speaking we too can get in serious trouble if we do not pay attention.

1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be sober and alert, because the enemy prowls around like a lion seeking someone to eat.

This clip we are about to see illustrates how some of us can be distracted and loose our alertness.

Video: “Be Prepared”

- Stay alert or you may end up down for the count.

We must always pay attention to what we’re doing. We need to realize that we are not alone in this world, that Satan is sitting back waiting for us to lose our focus.

Many times in life we find ourselves in situations that could be devastating depending on how we react to them.

For me, I reacted poorly with my accident. I chose to pull forward out of an automatic reaction and it cost me dearly. I can’t tell you how many times I have played my incident over and over again in my mind.

I should have stopped and thought about what to do. I should have gotten out of the Excursion and assessed the situation. I should have but didn’t.

I wonder how many times in life we choose poorly and react out of panic or don’t react at all because we simply are not paying attention to what is going on around us.

How many times in your life have you found yourself in a bad situation simply because of one wrong choice in which you were not thinking clearly? Making one wrong choice in life can be devastating like a domino effect.

It could be something small that we don’t even think much of at the time but can turn into something huge that can ultimately tear apart our lives and those around us.

White lies can darken our lives through time; un-forgiveness can lead to broken marriages and a moment of personal pleasure can create a world of despair.

Take a look at King David. In 2 Samuel 11 he makes a bad choice that just kept getting worse.

2 Samuel 11 2-5 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah(I) the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”