Read: Luke 10:25-42

By: Pastor Jarren Rogers

“Focus on faith. Focus on faith. Focus on Jesus.” – Judah Smith

I remember this video I saw once. I watched it in my Psychology class in high school. I don’t remember what exactly was being talked about but my teacher pulled down the projector screen and began and pressed play.

It began with the challenge: Try and count how many times the basketball is being passed.

It then switched to footage of five or six guys on a basketball court, each of them holding a ball. They began to zip around the court, weaving in and around each other, all the while passing the basketballs to each other.

I began to count each time a ball was passed. One, two, three, four…seventeen, eighteen.

Finally, the scene ended. Eighteen, I thought. Then the screen changed again broadcasting the answer: The basketball was passed 18 times.

I was proud of my observation skills, patting myself on the back.

But then these words flashed onto the screen: But did you notice the giant gorilla? A man in a gorilla suit waved at the camera.

I was confused, to say the least.

The same footage played again, of all the guys passing basketballs and running around the court. But this time I wasn’t counting, I was only watching. Suddenly, from the edge of the frame, that person in a gorilla suit walked into the shot. He did a few jumping jacks and then sauntered right into the middle of all of the commotion. With all of the basketball players weaving and passing around him, he stood right in the middle and waved at the camera. Then he walked off camera once again.

There’s no way that I missed that the first time. It was so obvious! But my professor replayed the video and we realized that the gorilla was there from the very beginning.

There were over twenty people in my class and all of us failed to notice the gorilla because we were so focused on counting the passes.

I was reminded of this video when I read this:

“‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her’” (Luke 10:41-42).

Too many times we are focused on what doesn’t really matter. We worry and we get upset and make other things the forefront of our attention and our lives. But ultimately Mary had it right. Nothing should take our focus away from what really matters: Jesus Christ.

And He will not be taken away from us.