As the story goes an examiner from the central office would visit schools at the end of a year to evaluate student achievement. One examiner had caused a good bit of apprehensions among teachers and among students during his visit to a rural school. The students had not appreciated his “know it all” attitude and his intrusion into their lives, but they patiently tolerated his visit for most of a week. On the last day, as he visited with a class to bid them farewell, a little guy said, “mister, you been askin’ us questions all week.

Before you go, let me ask you one.” “O.K.” he said. “Fire away.” “How many hairs are on a horse?’ The examiner said, I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that. Do you?” “Yes sir.” “How many are there!” The little guy said, “3,872,548.” “Are you sure?” The boy said, I sure am and if you don’t believe it, count em!”

Everybody had a good laugh, even the examiner, when they said, “Gotcha!” As the examiner left, he told the teacher, “I cant wait to get back to the Central Office and pull that little guy’s joke on the people there.”

A year passed. The examiner came back the next spring for the same ritual. At one point during his visit, that teacher happened to remember the incident of the last year and said, “by the way, you remember the little guy that asked you the question about the horse’s hair? What happened when you shared that with the folks in the Central Office?”

He said, I never got to use it and was so disappointed about that. I was all ready to tell it, but the life of me I couldn’t remember how many hairs that the boy said a horse had!”

How many times do we miss out on something pleasant because we get bogged down on some irrelevant technicality? In Matthew 19:16-22 The Bible tells us of a man who came to Jesus asking what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus provided an answer in v21 that did not set well with the man. He told the man to sell his possessions and follow Him. But the young man had a great deal of possessions and didn’t want to give those up.

Just like the examiner the young man missed out on something pleasant because of something that in the long run will have no result on the outcome. Maybe in our lives we are holding on to a grudge or ill feelings toward someone, that in the long run will keep us from experiencing something pleasant. Why not let that go and give it to God?

In Him,

Jeremy

James 1:22