To Not See the Forest for the Trees

MAR 4th, 2025 | Jeff Van Domelen

Here is the analogy. You have a job to do in the forest. There is a lot of work to get done before you get there. You need to create a plan, recruit help, bring in equipment, remove obstacles, build roads. The work is hard and long. Determination to get it done is not enough. So you focus more, work harder, neglect other things. Oops, there it is. What are you neglecting? What is the forest all about?

But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. Colossians 3:14 NKJV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1 ESV

Don’t lose sight of the forest, because you’re focused on the trees. Having a vision is truly a noble thing to work towards, but you will never get there if you abandon balance. For Christians the ever needful balance, in everything we do, is love. The goal, the end game, is love for the lost souls that you are trying to reach. There is another kind of love that you must not neglect. Love for your family and your church. Even the stranger in line at the grocery store, or the person who’s driving makes you angry.

How does this happen? It is subtle at first, the smallest compromises, less time for God, and others. If it’s not dealt with then it gets worse, less time, more work, not enough sleep. Before you know it you become vulnerable, because you are not prepared for all of the things that life throws at you. Part of your relationship with God is his preparation in you, for what is coming.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:3-7 ESV

We know that faith without works is dead being alone, (James 2:17) yet love is greater

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13: 13 ESV

No matter how dedicated you are with your work for the Lord, without love it is week. Yes you need to have works to propel your faith toward your purpose, but the end does not justify the means. Without love you will stray from the path that God puts before you. Maintaining fellowship with God, your family, your community, and your church will help keep you on the right path.

Remember Jesus on the cross. He was suffering, facing death, and giving up his life for all of humanity. Yet at that time, and place, he turned to John, and asked him to take care of his mother.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
John 19:26-27 ESV