Roadrunners

Many people envision a roadrunner as the cartoon character that runs away from the coyote and his elaborate traps then announces his departure with his trademark, “Beep, Beep!”  Others may picture the Plymouth muscle car manufactured during the late 1960’s and the 1970’s.

I only recall seeing a real roadrunner once when I was a kid growing up in Oklahoma.  However, I have seen several in west Texas in the last few years.  I really enjoy roadrunners.  They amuse me.  The ones I have seen are the size of a skinny chicken.  They can fly, but appear to prefer to stay on the ground.

My Beautiful Wife and I recently saw three roadrunners within about an hour.  The first one ran out to the middle of my lane and paused, so I honked at him.  He just stood there and looked around.  I honked again and he kept standing there.  I pushed on the horn and kept honking as we approached.  Then, “Whump!”  My Beautiful Wife and I looked at each other with our mouths wide open.  “Did that just happen?”  “I can’t believe he didn’t move!”  After a brief pause, I added, “Maybe he thought the horn was another roadrunner.  You know, the one on the cartoons always says, ‘Beep, beep!'”  We couldn’t help but laugh.  Soon, we saw another roadrunner crossing the highway.  I tapped the horn, and he paused on the road.  Since he stopped, I decided not to honk again.  He flew out of our path at the last-minute.  We couldn’t believe that honking the horn actually seemed to cause the roadrunners to stop in the road instead of running faster!  Later, we saw a third roadrunner crossing our path.  I looked at My Beautiful Wife and said, “I’m not honking at this one.  He’s on his own.  If he doesn’t get out of my way, that’s his fault.”  Sure enough, the third roadrunner just kept right on going and cleared the road in plenty of time.

I think I have a tendency to be just like roadrunners.  I can be focused on an important task, get a text alert, or Facebook notification, and I stop in my tracks.  I start looking at the source of the alert, and the next thing I know, “Whump!”  I just wasted thirty minutes “standing in the middle of the road” instead of moving forward.  There are lots of things out there vying for my attention.  Not all of them are bad.  I just have to be able to set priorities to accomplish the important things first.  Then if I have time for the other things, so be it.

Lord, please help to stay focused on the priorities you have for me and to avoid being distracted by things that aren’t important.

What things easily distract you from your goals?  What do you do to stay on track?  Share your thoughts in the comment area.