We often have the bad habit of making mountains out of molehills (and incidentally, we make molehills out of mountains as well!). Such, I believe, is illustrated by a recent news story documenting “when a huge clock in Trafalgar Square [in London] marking the countdown to the 2012 [Olympic] Games stopped just hours after being unveiled at a glitzy ceremony.” The clock froze while still reading 500 days, 7 hours, 6 minutes, and 56 seconds left till the start of the Games. How big a news story this actually became I do not know. The article, however, refers to the Olympic organizers being left “red-faced” and the designer admitting disappointment “that the clock has suffered this technical issue.” However, with all of this in mind, I am going to make a prediction. My prediction is that in 500 days no one will remember this happened.
In the large view of things, this really is nothing more than a hiccup on the spectrum of time. Honestly, this story ran Tuesday and by today (Thursday) it is already lost in the cycle of news. But in the moment there was shock and fear. Such is a classic example of that mentioned above – making a mountain out of a molehill.
Not only, though, is it the case that we often blow things out of proportion in the secular world; often we do it in matters pertaining to religion. I cannot imagine the number of times I have heard elders and preachers bemoan a division that occurred because a consensus could not be reached on the color of the new carpet or the style of curtains to cover the windows. I remember a preacher-friend telling me of a split that occurred in the congregation with which he now works a few years before he arrived. The elders had decided they could get more space out of their auditorium by rearranging the pews a certain way. The design angered so many people that close to two hundred left. Stories like that both anger me and leave me scratching my head at where some people’s priorities lie.
In Matthew 23:24 Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for being a people who would “strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” In other words they would make a big deal out of minor things and minimize those things that were significant. Many people have gotten very good at “majoring in minors and minoring in majors” but such is a great disservice to the church. We face real issues that are capable of causing real problems; yet we want to waste our time bickering over petty differences that amount to nothing. Souls are being ushered into eternity at an alarming rate and most of them are lost. Let’s not waste our time worrying about the minute details and decisions of life that in 500 days no one will remember.