Missed it by that much

From the Preacher's Desk:

"Missed it by that much."  These words were made famous by Agent 86, Maxwell Smart in the TV series "Get Smart."  That man could get into all kinds of trouble, and frequently the trouble centered around the gadgets that really made him famous.  In the episode "I Shot 86 Today" he brought out a phone disguised as a golf shoe.  In 1969 everyone laughed at the idea of a shoe being a phone.  Now, in 2015, the possibility of a watch becoming a phone is on the verge of becoming reality.

We can communicate with one another by phone, by computer, by text, and by video.  Social media has gone from novelty to mainstream to necessity.  (Business advisors are now telling their clients that survival is almost impossible without a social media presence.)  We are now capable of being more "in touch" with one another than ever before.  This is only my personal experience, but I talk (or text) with my son and my parents almost every day and I get to video chat with my niece a couple of times a week.  My love for them is enhanced by the aid of all these gadgets, but FaceTime is never going to beat face-to-face time, and chatting by text will never beat actual conversation.  Gadgets are great for what they do, but at the end of the day you can still be left feeling like you "missed it by that much."

Most importantly of all, while applications may be of certain benefit, we will never be able to gadget our way to God.  We know this because it has already been tried.  In the history of man, the very first "app" can be found in Genesis 11 when the inhabitants of Babel said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens..." (verse 4).  But that "app," the tower, could not replace them doing what God had told them to do.  If you want to draw closer to God, He has told you how to accomplish it.  Like the people of Babel, when we try to change or improve upon God's prescribed manner of doing things, in actuality we are revolting against Him.  The people of Babel may have put forth a mighty effort, but in the end they "missed it by that much."

In Matthew 25, Jesus condemns a group whom He said did not do what needed to be done.  Their response was "Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?" (Matthew 25:44).  I believe these people earnestly desired to do the will of God, but something, somewhere went wrong.  It is evident, though, that their attention was on something other than what God wanted them to do.  On the Day of Judgment, you do not want to hear Jesus say, "You missed it by that much."