The Main Thing

I love quotes from great thinkers, authors, theologians, scientists, whatever. I like to hear what other thinkers are thinking about. What makes the world work for them? What are the things that they think are important? It's like taking a little peek into their brain.

One of my all time favorite quotes is by author Stephen Covey,

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."

It seems a little goofy the first time you read it. But if you think about it for just a minute, it's pretty profound. We often get sidetracked by stuff. Stuff that is not the main thing. Stuff that is less than the most important. I know that sometimes we have to take care of mundane things - we can't always be working on the most important, coolest stuff. But we need to make sure that we aren't distracted from doing our main thing. If you work for Chevy, the main thing is to make vehicles - not burritos. If you work for Taco Bell, the main thing is make food - not vehicles. Simple concept, but how many companies have messed up by spending too much effort on something that was not the main thing? More than I'd care to count.

What is your "main thing"? Is it to be the best in your profession? The best programmer? The best truck driver, lawyer, welder, nurse, mechanic, doctor, preacher, teacher or whatever? I hope we can all aspire to have a main thing that is more important than our career. Maybe our main thing should be to be an awesome parent or a devoted spouse. That seems more worthy of our efforts.

I wonder if I desire to make my main thing to be a devoted follower of Christ, could I still be an awesome parent and a devoted spouse? Those shouldn't be mutually exclusive - should they? Sometimes it seems like we think they should be. That doesn't seem right to me.


Ponderings_,