It’s tough to compete with a chicken.

We were just enjoying a nice family dinner, encouraging our girls to finish their meal. You would think that it could be simple event. But, nooooooooooooo, a chicken had to show up at our window! There was no way the kids were going to stay seated when they had a new friend peering into the window. You would think that their father’s witty, intelligent, entertaining conversation would grip their attention, but I never had a chance once the chicken showed up.

The neighbor’s chicken recently relocated to our backyard. I think she decided that our patio table would be a perfect roosting place, since we discovered her there the next morning (and now need to wash off her “memory”). I tried to discourage her from staying, tipping the table over and stacking the chairs. No use. She merely moved over to the stacks of lumber on the far side of property and started redesigning her dream home.

I could handle her clucking around the yard, picking at bugs and seeds. But did she have to join us for dinner every night, pecking at the window, looking pitiful? I was tempted to invite her in for dinner, if you know what I mean. At least I would have my kids’ full attention on the meal if she was the main course.

Yes, it is tough to compete with a chicken.

In life and ministry, I have run across a lot of chickens, those things that divert my attention from the task at hand, the small, insignificant diversions that steal time and focus from my work and ministry. It is so easy to spout the saying of keeping the main thing the main thing, but reality finds me derailed by a simple chicken:

I get diverted from focusing on prayer when my mind drifts off to mull a recent worry.
I get sidetracked from the important to do the unimportant screaming for my attention.
I even get diverted from finishing this e-letter due to the sudden urge for coffee!

Some distractions are bad and insignificant, time-wasters and energy-stealers (one reason I have zero games on my laptop). They steal a few minutes here and there, just by popping up and diverting us.

Yet many diversions are good things, positive and interesting. I see countless opportunities for ministry every time I see an overwhelming need. I receive scores of interesting invitations for preaching, teaching, or service. But I can lose focus when I try to focus on everything at once.

I wrestle with this daily. I know our task is to develop and build leaders in Moldova . And while I might not be ADD, I can occasionally be overwhelmed by the multitude of distractions and diversions from our central vision-building leaders.

The Apostle Paul said “…forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me.”

I want to run to the goal of becoming like Christ.
I want to focus on being a great husband and a loving father.
I want to converge my God-given vision with my spiritual gifts and natural abilities.
I want to be single-minded with purpose and ministry, knowing that people are the most important.

Now if I can only get rid of the chicken.

Your slightly ADD missionary,
Andy Raatz

PS: We finally got the chicken back across the fence. They are fast little critters, so it took us a few days.