November 25, 2025

Dear Friends,

It was a simple request from my loving wife: cut the fresh peanut butter rice crispy brownies into squares; remove them from the pan and place them in freezer containers. What could go wrong? 

I didn’t give it another thought. My knife sliced through those brownies like a snow shovel through new-fallen snow yesterday morning. I noticed they weren’t coming easily out of the pan, so I brought out the big gun to aid me — a wood handled pie server, a gift from friends. It did the trick. Soon all those brownies found new homes in containers bound for fridge and freezer. All that was left was cleanup. It was while attempting to wash the pie server that I realized that it had a plastic guard over the blade! No wonder those brownies had been sticking uncharacteristically to the server! I had a good laugh at my failure to pay attention.

To fail to pay attention may not always be as benign as my pie server experience. Just last week, I was working for a prolonged period of time with my table saw in my shop. As I got fatigued, I reminded myself to take a break because I know that fatigue makes me careless. When I’m careless, I don’t pay attention and, when you don’t pay attention while working with a table saw, fingers can get mangled or removed quickly.

Those words, “pay attention” are also used in several places in the New Testament. We are to pay attention to the log in our own eye, rather than the speck in a neighbour’s eye. Jesus taught the way of God truthfully so that even the Pharisees recognized that he paid no attention to the human status of people. According to Paul, one who is sound in the faith will pay no attention to speculations, myths or human commands of those who reject the truth. The writer to the Hebrews exhorts his readers to pay close attention to what they have heard so that they do not drift away from the truth. Finally, Peter reminds his readers that they have the prophetic message as something completely reliable and that they should pay attention to it as you would pay attention to a light shining in a dark place.

Where we put and maintain our attention matters. Do you know what distracts you? What voices, beside the voice of Jesus, demand your daily attention? Where do you go to be distracted when you don’t want to pay attention to something to which you should be paying attention? Are there values to which you pay attention that are in opposition to the values of the kingdom of God?

Paul warned Timothy to pay attention: “Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Blessings!

Doug