[315 words]
Sometime ago I was watching a baseball game on television. I noticed the pitcher had cotton in his ears. My first thought was he’s out there pitching with an earache. About that time the announcer gave an explanation for the cotton. He said the cotton was there to cut out all of the distractions. This pitcher wanted to concentrate completely on the man at the plate. He did not want to hear the cheers, the boos or the experts from the grandstand telling him how to pitch. Since he could not put cotton in the mouths of the fans he placed the cotton in his own ears. I think we all have to learn this lesson as well.
Jesus used this principle. The Bible says that He set His face steadfastly toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) though it meant His death. He never forgot His mission. He never took His eye off the goal. He said, “I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.”
Paul used this principle. Paul said in Philippians 3:13, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.”
We need some of this cotton today. We are letting too many things distract us. We are looking to. the right and to the left. We are listening to too many different voices. This only leads to confusion and frustration. We need at times to shut the world out and focus on Him who stands at the gate. The Hebrew writer says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
Bob Plunket
via Findlay Church of Christ
Sparta, TN