Shridhar Chillal of India hasn't cut the nails of his left hand since 1952. That's almost fifty years ago! No surprise that Shridhar holds the Guinness world record for long fingernails. But Shridhar reportedly doesn't care about fame or even fingernails. He has only one goal: to make money out of his dubious accomplishment. "I haven't had a good night's sleep for 30 years," he complains. He had a vision of how his nails would look one day in a glass case attached to a plaster replica of his 56-year-old hand. The problem was that no one had offered him enough money. The highest bid was $100,000 from an American collector in 1991. Shridhar expected double that amount of money. At last report he and his wife lived in a grimy cubicle in the market area of Pune, India. They share a narrow cot. Their daughter sleeps on the floor. Their rent is $1.60 a month. (1)
Shridhar was offered $100,000 to cut his fingernails and he turned it down while his family lives in poverty? Get real! Somebody should tell Shridhar that he needs to cut his losses, so to speak. I thought about Shridhar when I read our text for the day: Jesus said, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off . . . And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off . . . and if you eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell . . ."
Strong words! Of course Jesus is employing hyperbole. He doesn't really mean for us to cut off a body part. But he is giving us some very important advice.
EVALUATE YOUR LIFE'S PATH. That is the first thing he is saying to us. Evaluate your life's path. What is your ultimate goal? "It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye," he says, "than to enter hell with two eyes." You've got a goal, he says ” to enter the Kingdom. Don't trip up before you get there. As Stephen Covey put it the best selling book, THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE, begin with the end in mind and keep your eye fixed there. Evaluate your life's path.
Frequently, the difference between the person who enjoys big accomplishments and the person who does not is that the former dreamed big dreams and set goals to reach them. In the comic strip MARVIN, Marvin is heard to say, "I think it's important to establish goals in life. I've set both short-term and long-term goals for myself." As he sucks on his bottle, he explains, "My short-term goal is to get fed again in four hours." Then he adds, "My long-term goal is to get fed again in eight hours." Too many of us are aiming no higher than Marvin! We are only interested in instant gratification. We are only interested in the short term. We have no long-term plan for our life.
There was once a barren land where wood was scarce. But a certain citizen knew of a hidden forest where wood was plentiful, so he availed himself of it. When people asked for some of his timber he asked, "What will you do with it?"
Those who wanted firewood were politely turned away. But citizens who wished to build homes or cabinets or boxes were given the wood they needed. (2) The keeper of the forest wanted to encourage long-term thinking. He knew that many people continually focus on the immediate ” building a fire to keep warm ” and neglecting the far-off ” building a home. We need to look down the road ten, twenty, thirty years and see where we are headed. If we had a clearly defined destination, then many of us would choose better roads to get there and we would know when we had arrived.
In 1965 Allen Schwartz became the law partner of Edward Koch. At that point Koch was nearly 40-years-old and had made only a slight ripple in the sea of New York City politics. Nevertheless, as Schwartz and Koch sat in their law office at 53 Wall Street early in 1966, Koch made a startling prediction. Schwartz's wife had just given birth to a son, David, and the two men were talking about it.
"He will have his bar mitzvah in Gracie Mansion," Koch said, sounding as if he meant it. Schwartz looked at him, amazed. His modestly successful law partner was promising to be Mayor of New York City by the time of David's bar mitzvah. He thought Koch had lost his mind. Thirteen years later, Ed Koch was Mayor of New York, and David Schwartz had his bar mitzvah at Gracie Mansion. (3)
Did Ed Koch have confidence? Yes, but he also had a plan, a vision. He could see where his life' path could lead him. Since many of us have no fixed direction for life ” no challenging goals, no lofty purpose ” we do not achieve all that we might achieve. Evaluate your life's path.
Step two: LOOK TO THE LITTLE THINGS. Jesus emphasizes that it is the little things ” a hand, a foot, an eye ” that often defeat us. There is a Hindustani Proverb that says, "Men trip not on mountains; they stumble on stones." And it is true.
While browsing at a chic clothier, nineteen-year-old Jonathan Parker decided that he needed three leather jackets in the worst way. The price was a little too steep, though, so Jonathan decided that he would take a "five-finger discount." That is, he was going to steal them.
Jonathan surveyed the premises and spotted every shoplifter's nightmare, a sensor alarm in front of the shop's exit. He knew the merchandise was tagged with magnetic strips, and if he tried to slip out with any tagged merchandise, the sensor would set off a deafening siren.
Undaunted, Jonathan grabbed some jackets that suited his taste and ducked into the nearest dressing room. Thoroughly searching the jackets, our shoplifter found all the magnetic strips and peeled them off. He found them inside sleeves and pockets, under collars and along the waistband. Jonathan was very proud of himself as he flicked the last of the strips onto the floor. He stuffed the jackets under his coat and boldly walked toward the front door.
A second later the loud, piercing scream of the alarm alerted the security guard, who quickly apprehended our thorough young thief. Jonathan was stunned. Hadn't he searched every inch of those jackets?
The security guard searched the stolen jackets, and he couldn't find any magnetic strips either. So why had the alarm gone off?
Then the guard looked a little deeper. He looked right into the sole of the matter ” the sole of Jonathan's shoe, that is. And there he discovered four or five of the little magnetic strips, which Jonathan had thrown to the floor and then stepped on. The young man was arrested and charged with shoplifting. Sticky fingers and sticky shoes ” they'll get you every time.
(4) That little narrative is contained in the book AMERICA'S DUMBEST CRIMINALS.
In Orlando, Florida a suspected Colombian drug kingpin who had eluded authorities for two years was caught at Universal Studios ” for shoplifting souvenirs. Amazing! A drug kingpin arrested for shoplifting!
A few years ago a presidential debate with more than 100 million viewers watching was held up for twenty seven minutes ” twenty-seven minutes that the President of the United States and a challenger for that office stood silent before that immense television audience. The reason for the silence was an equipment malfunction caused by a capacitor. The part of the equipment that failed cost $1.00. $1.00!
The space probe MARINER I, bound for Venus, headed off course and had to be destroyed at a cost of $18.5 million. The rocket had responded erratically because an anonymous flight computer programmer had left out a comma from Mariner's computer program. Look to the little things. The little foxes eat the vines.
Are there little foxes that are gnawing at the vine of your life? Let me give you an example. A motivational speaker once said that he had quit reading newspapers and watching the news on television. He said that once upon a time he had been a news junkie. He would read the newspaper through every morning. In the evening he would sit in front of the television for one hour to get the local and the national news. His car radio was set on a news station. One day he added up the hours he spent reading the news, watching the news, listening to the news, and he realized that he was spending the equivalent of one-and-one-half workdays a week on the news. Think of that ” one-and-one-half workdays. And what was he receiving in return? Practically nothing that benefitted his life. Most news stories were simply extended stories of the story from the day before. Ninety per cent of the stories were depressing and sometimes down right infuriating. But none of them improved the quality of his life. Suppose, he decided, he were to spend his drive time listening to inspirational tapes rather than the news? Suppose he were to spend the time he devoted reading the local paper and watching the news casts on television to reading material that would advance his career or help him grow spiritually? And so, he made this step. At first, cutting off the news was like cutting off a hand, but the result was dramatic. Not only did he get more work done, but he had no difficulty keeping up with significant news stories at all. If any story was really important, other people would be talking about it and he could keep up through them.
Look after the little things. That is the point. Diversions that distract you from your goals ” time wasters that drain the hours out of your day. One of the best antidotes to sin is the realization that sin always keeps you from your goals, your path, your real heart's desire. In fact, isn't that one way that sin may be defined? It is anything in your life that is an impediment to your being all God created you to be.
FINALLY, JESUS SAYS, ACT DECISIVELY. Act decisively. Cutting off a hand or plucking out an eye is about as decisive an act as we can take. If you see that your life can be better, whether it is your home life or your work life or your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and if you see that there are things that are keeping you from achieving what God means for you to achieve, don't "pussyfoot around" as the Southern politician used to say, get into action.
By the way, someone has invented a new word: CATMATIC. It is the opposite of DOGMATIC. Dogmatic people are those who have opinions about everything and are always expressing those opinions. Catmatic persons are those who pussyfoot around! They never make firm decisions. They never get into action.
A farmer in need of a farmhand posted a notice in the village. Three promising youths responded, and the farmer met with each in turn. He asked the first young man about his background, and concluded with a peculiar question. "Tell me, how long can you work with a stone in your shoe?"
"Half a day," answered the youth. The farmer thanked him and sent him on his way.
The farmer spoke with the second young man, again concluding with, "How long can you work with a stone in your shoe?"
"All day long!" boasted the boy. The farmer sent the second young man on his way.
The farmer met with the third youth. "How long can you work with a stone in your shoe?"
"Not a minute!" exclaimed the youth. "When I get a stone in my shoe, I take it out right away." The farmer hired the third young man on the spot.
If there is some stone in your shoe as you walk life's path ” some stone that is impeding your progress ” get rid of it and do it now. You may be in a relationship that is tearing you down. You may be in a work situation that you know is destroying you. You may have a situation in your family that you know cannot continue without a tremendous amount of pain. Isn't it time you moved into action? Isn't it time you cut it off or plucked it out?
Jesus wants us to know the joy of living in the Kingdom here and now. He wants us to think long term. He wants us to rid ourselves of those little things that drag us down and keep us from being all we were created to be. And he wants us to act now and act decisively.
1. Anthony Spaeth,"Going for the Guinness," WORLD PRESS REVIEW, August 1995, p. 19.
2. Vernon Howard, INSPIRE YOURSELF (Grants Pass, OR: Four Star Books, Inc., 1975), p.32.
3. Robert B. Cialdini, INFLUENCE (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1984), pp. 185- 186.
4. Daniel R. Butler, Leland Gregory and Alan Ray (Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1995), pp. 120-121.