Sometimes, It All Comes Down to One Thing
Thursday, March 15, 2018 at 02:29AM 
“One thing have I desired of the LORD … that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life.” Psalms 27:4
On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart seventy-three seconds into flight, killing its seven crew members. The entire vehicle disintegrated after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The failure caused a breach joint, allowing pressurized hot gas to reach an external fuel tank. The structural failure of the external tank broke up the orbiter. The O-ring breakup caused the disaster. The Challenger catastrophe tragically illustrates the importance of one thing.
How many times have you looked at your problems and told yourself that things are just too complicated to fix? Maybe the cause of today’s mess actually started years ago. You can’t go back and undo it to come up with a different result. Life seems complicated when you want to do something, and you aren’t allowed to do it; when you have to do something but don’t have the money; when you did something but shouldn’t have; when you didn’t do something and later wish you had. When you loved someone, who didn’t love you in return; when you loved and later realized you didn’t really love that person in the first place; when you committed and then changed your mind too late; life seems complicated.
If only David had gone to war with his troops, the Bathsheba incident wouldn’t have happened. It became a complicated mess of intrigue and murder for which David would pay through the death of his own family members. The truth is that the unbelievably twisted and hopelessly complicated disasters of life will not be solved by trying to figure it all out. The bars and clubs fill up with people every weekend because it’s easier to forget troubles by drinking than to face them. It’s seen as less painful to throw a marriage away than to confront the man or woman in the mirror. It’s easier to quit a job, quit school, jump into a new relationship or move a thousand miles away than to reduce everything down to God and self. Don’t drown in the abyss of life’s complications. It all comes down to one thing.
One thing I desire. Psalm 27:4. Go to church. Jesus said, “Upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Desire church. Desire to stay in fellowship with the people of God. Desire to keep your relationship to God intact. God is going to save the church. You will be saved as a part of the church, not as an individual, free-lance Christian.
One thing you lack. Mark 10:21. We call this man the rich, young ruler. The answer Jesus gave him caused him great pain and sorrow because he believed that the way to happiness was paved with gold and silver. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” 1 Timothy 6:6-10 (NIV)
One thing Is needful. Luke 10:40-42. Martha allowed her life to become complicated with her own expectations. She was a perfectionist and a busybody, always trying to fix someone else’s life. (Have you ever known a happy perfectionist?) Jesus told her that she needed one thing; stop all of her fussing and fuming, her busyness and worry, her obsession with the affairs of her own life and sit at the feet of the Master.
Citing complications seems justified, but it only masks the simple truth. Get down to the one thing. It’s amazing how much it will mean.
Reader Comments (1)
I watched the re-runs of the disaster. As I did I distinctly heard the narrator say that NASA had been told, because of the freezing temps. the night before, that it was very probable the O rings had cracked. He had not gotten to the explosion part yet, bit I knew right then that's why it had happened.
It wasn't the manufacterer's fault; it was NASA's fault - for not listening. Nasa was warned.