Unlike many people today, Jesus did not live His time on earth in an aimless, purposeless, way. He was sent on a mission and stayed focused on that mission. In Luke 4, Jesus read from Isaiah 61:1 and tells us what His mission was, based on Isaiah’s prophecy.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” (Luke 4:18)
The Bible clearly reveals what was important to the Lord and the things that were important to Him should also be important to us. But that is not the case for some folks.
There is a story of two paddle boats which left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail’s pace of the other. Words were exchanged. Challenges were made and the race began. Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the deep South.
One boat began falling behind because they didn’t have enough fuel. There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race. As the boat dropped back, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship’s cargo and tossed it into the ovens. When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport. They ended up winning the race, but they burned their cargo!
A lot of folks have done the same thing with their life. They have taken the one life God has given them and consumed it on the wrong things. As far as the world is concerned they might have won the race, but in the sight of God they have burned their cargo.
According to Luke 4 and Isaiah 61, what really mattered to Jesus was ministering to those in need. If you go through this like only focused on how you can get ahead, without any thought to those hurting around you, you may win the rat race, but ultimately, you’ve lost what really mattered.