Missed it by three feet!

It started out as a simple project. Add a slide out bar in my closet so I could hang clothes on it as I prepared for a trip or other activity. Simple. Find it online. Buy it. Attach it. Use it.

You are probably ahead of me. Rarely does something that seems simple turn out to be simple. It is somehow attached to Murphy’s Law. If that doesn’t translate in your culture, Google it and you will understand. If it can go wrong, it will.

While the item I bought was fine, it wouldn’t fit where I wanted it. There was a clothes bar in the way. So, I had to find a solution. After thinking and planning and drawing, and a couple of trips to the hardware store, I was ready to start. Armed with small strips of wood, I glued, painted, sawed, screwed, and attached the device to the shelf. Voilà! After many days of thinking, planning, and executing the plan, my project was complete.

Having just installed it, I was standing in the closet looking at this project and, for some reason, looked three feet to my left. And it dawned on me. If I had attached the slide out bar over there, I wouldn’t have needed to do any of this other work. Instead of the project stretching out over days and weeks, it could have been finished in minutes.

(Insert SCREAMING sound here!)

That has been on my mind since last night when I realized how I had missed it. The solution rested just three feet away, but I didn’t see it. I had been so focused on the problem…and my clever solution to get around the problem…that I didn’t look around to see if there might be an alternative to what I thought had to be done. It was right there…three feet away.

Hopefully, I’ve learned a lesson, one that I can pass on to you. No, it isn’t about something to put into your closet. It is about how we as leaders deal with the many problems we find almost daily. We stare at the problem, we study the problem, we get out pen and paper and draw up the problem and the possible solution to the problem, and then we get started on our plan to overcome the problem.

It reminds me of a story that came out of the early days of the race for space. It may not be absolutely true, but it does illustrate a point. The US and the Soviet Union were both trying to outdo the other in the race to put a man in space, and later on the moon. One problem that came up was the effect of weightlessness on a simple thing like a ball point pen. The ink wouldn’t flow in that weightless condition. The Americans spent over a million dollars coming up with a solution…a pen that would write in space. It was amazing.

The Russians, on the other hand, devised a much simpler and far less costly solution. They used a pencil.

What problems are you facing today? Have you been focusing on the problem, without looking beyond it for a better solution? Have you submitted the problem to the Lord for His wisdom and insight? No, I didn’t pray about my project. I should have. Does the Lord care about some project I am working on in my closet? All I know is what His Word says.

[blockquote author=”I Peter 5:7 NLT” link=”” target=”_blank”]Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.[/blockquote]

[blockquote author=”Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT” link=”” target=”_blank”]

Trust in the Lord with all your heart;

do not depend on your own understanding.

Seek his will in all you do,

and he will show you which path to take.

[/blockquote]

Yes…look around. But also look up. Help for your problems…big and small…is close by.