What’s Important?

This last weekend, while weeding out my DVD collection, I found a forgotten treasure; all eight copies of Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone made for TV murder mystery series. So-o-o, I decided to have a marathon. Of course, anything with Tom Selleck, is worth watching. However, in case you’ve never seen any of these movies, here is a brief background blurb.

Following his divorce and loss of his job as a homicide detective for the LAPD, Jesse Stone travels to Paradise, Massachusetts, a quaint little coastal town where they hire him as their chief of police. Jesse Stone lost his job in LA because of his drinking problem due to his divorce.

By disc number four, “Sea Change,” Stone is seeing a shrink [1] for his drinking. During this session, Doctor Dix says something that grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Because of the unction that I felt, I knew that I was going to do something with the statement. So guess what I did and who I consulted first. 🙂

Doctor Dix was curious as to why Jesse drank and asked him, “Do you drink while at work?” Jesse answered, “No, I don’t. It would be unprofessional.” He then asked, “Do you drink at home?” Jesse replied, “Yes.” After further discussion Doctor Dix came to an internal conclusion that Jesse drank because of his divorce and worried about what he had no control over, which in and of itself is an exercise in futility. I am sure that the doctor surmised in his head that the reason Jesse only drank when he got home, was because his focus apparently changed, to which Doctor Dix gives the take-away of the scene, “If you haven’t got anything to do, find something to do. If it’s not important. . .make it important.”

Many of us today give the enemy a foothold in our lives when our minds become idle and we worry about things over which we have no control and do not give it to God.

v27 and do not give the Devil a foothold [Ephesians 4:27 NIV].

v27 Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop. . .[Proverbs 16:27a TLB].

As with Jesse Stone, if we are going through a difficult period in our life and have much time on our hands, then I echo Doctor Dix, “If we have nothing to do, find something to do. If it is unimportant. . .make it important,” or as Jean Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise says, as he points to the observation screen, “Make it so.”

If you have nothing to fill the void at present, a great place to start would be the Scriptures and time spent with the Lord in prayer. Time spent with Him has always helped me out of a tight spot. Now I do not know what you are going through (if anything right now), but here is a great Scripture to get you going.

v8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
v9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you [Philippians 4:8-9 KJV].
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[1] Played by William Devane