What Grabs Our Attention?

What Grabs Our Attention?  
   
Most of us have witnessed many dramatic rescue scenes (like those below) on televised news broadcasts.  
   

• Four helpless workers hang precariously from the edge of a skyscraper. Their  

scaffolding has all but collapsed. Police, fire and rescue personnel have been summoned. Thousands of anxious spectators watch from below. News helicopters and ground crews record every moment of the unfolding drama. Scores of people are trying to save these four lives. Thousands pray for their safe rescue.
   

• Immediately following an apartment fire, dozens of critical burn victims are  

transported to the Trauma Unit of a nearby hospital. Teams of burn specialists are quickly assembled. Meanwhile, dozens of family members and supportive friends assemble in waiting rooms, anxiously awaiting the status of loved ones. A prayer vigil takes place outside the hospital.  
   

• A four-year-old child is missing in dense woods near an isolated campground.  

Swamps, bears, coyotes, snakes and other dangers abound. Police, National Guard personnel and hundreds of volunteers spend the entire night fervently searching for the child. The family eagerly awaits news, and requests the prayers of local churches. No one rests until the child is found.  
   
   
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Such scenes have repeatedly touched our hearts, and most of us have fervently prayed for successful outcomes. This is as it should be. However, other tragic dramas unfold around us daily, but rarely get our attention, let alone our prayers. The irony is that the potential consequences are far worse.  
   

• A neighbor is lost in sin. He knows little about God's word and has never  

obeyed the gospel. He is on a collision course for the fiery lake that burns forever. One of his neighbors is a Christian, perhaps you or me. A church building may even be located nearby. Despite the fact that his soul is at stake, no crowds watch anxiously for rescue. No search party is organized. Few, if any, pray. No spiritual rescue personnel knock on his door.  
   
I commend Christians that pray for the victims of the real-life dramas that unfold on TV. But what of the lost souls next door or across the street? Do we notice? Do we pray? Meanwhile, Jesus hopes that we will obey His Great Commission. Do we?  
   
Jesus, Always Jesus!  
   
Dennis