Do What is Right in Front of You

“Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.”
Proverbs 4:25

How often are you in the middle of something when another “something” presents itself that you don’t necessarily want to change gears to do, yet you know it is the right thing to do?  

For me, the Lord is giving me ample opportunities to switch gears whether I want to shift or not.  More than often I would rather keep the emergency brake on and stay in one place doing what I want.

Jesus models what it is like to switch gears on a dime, but he was never annoyed – like I can be – when faced with situations that took precedence over another. 

Take for instance the day Jesus is heading to heal Jarius’s sick daughter – yet Jesus switches gears to stop and heal a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years – then Jesus goes back to first gear continuing toward Jarius’s house to now raise Jarius’s daughter from the dead since while He was healing the bleeding women, the young daughter had died before Jesus got to her (Mark 5:21-43).

Or how about when Jesus wanted to spend some time grieving the death of his beloved cousin, John the Baptist – Jesus got in a boat to be alone and noticed the approaching crowd.  Jesus had compassion on the people so he shifted gears to heal those who were sick and fed 5,000 plus Imago Dei’s while in the midst of His grief (Matthew 14:13-18).

So my friend, what is right in front of you today when you had other plans?…a sick child, a distressed phone call, a hurting neighbor…whatever it may be, God has sovereignly placed this situation at your feet.  Will you choose to stop your plans and address the circumstance like Christ or continue to do what you had planned and ignore shifting gears?