Fleas or Elephants ?

Something is wrong with you car, so you take it to the mechanic who has serviced your cars for a long time.  You trust him.  He has a good track record and has never, to your knowledge, done you wrong.  He's the bearer of bad news.  He'll need $1,600 to fix your car, money you really don't have at the moment.  Elephant.

You're putting together a piece of furniture you bought at Ikea, and having a difficult time understanding the instructions they supplied you with.  By mistake, you use the wrong screw with the embedded receiving nut and end up ruining the nut.  Flea

Your young son falls and breaks his arm.  When you take him to the emergency room, you are told it is worse than a normal broken arm, and he will require surgery and follow up physical therapy for a while.  You and he had scheduled a father son fishing trip for the next week.  Elephant.

You had a rough day at work.  It's been a trying week.  Today you are just tired.  When you get home, all you want to do is kick your shoes off, sit in the easy chair, and chill out a bit.  When you get home, however, your wife "reminds" you that the lawn needs mowing, wonders when you will get to finishing up painting the bathroom, and "oh yes, you're on your own for dinner tonight, I'm going out with the girls."  Flea

So, what's with this flea and elephant stuff?  An old friend once shared the following with me:

"Joe, it's not the elephants that get you....it's those darn fleas."

Aren't we much more apt to get all bent out of shape over the fleas?  When the elephant steps in, sure we get upset, and perhaps even perplexed....but seldom do we get really angry, nor do we act inappropriately.  Isn't it the fleas that just  drive us nuts to the point where we say things that would have been better left unsaid or do things that we regret later on?  Isn't it the fleas that we react to in such a way that we embarrass ourselves?

Bottom Line Thought:  It's our reactions to the fleas of our lives that tell others more about our lives as Christian men than anything else.  Our reactions to life's fleas tend to be far more spontaneous and volatile than life's elephants.....even though the elephants are much bigger.