When I was a kid, one of my coaches told me a story about circus elephants. When these elephants are still little and weak, they are chained to ironstakes in the ground, which prevent them from breaking free and running away. This allows the circus trainers to keep them close, work with them, and prepare them for their routines. What’s strange is that even after the little elephants grow into huge and powerful animals, they remain restricted by those same miniature stakes in the ground. Even when they are more than strong enough to yank the stake out of the ground and roam free, they don’t do it. They don’t even try.

Sometimes we demonstrate this kind of helplessness too. We focus on a little stake (or mistake) from our past and forget that, with God’s help, we have the power to release whatever has been holding us back.

Is a little stake from your past holding you back?

Jim wants to earn more money to provide for his family better, but he continues to think about his business as a burden. Instead of practicing 4:8 Thinking by using his discretionary time to become more valuable in the marketplace, he squanders it complaining about his inadequate compensation. He secretly thinks, When they start paying me more, I‘ll start being more valuable. Jim is turning the spotlight on the wrong thing.

What about you? Is there an area of your life where you are pointing the spotlight in the wrong direction?

My two oldest boys have figured out that I am not the most complex guy in the world. When we’re playing capture the flag with their friends, I often hide the flag out in the open, almost in plain view. You guessed it—for a long time it’s the last place any of the kids look. When playing hide-and-seek, I’ll often hide in the same spot two or three times in a row, consistently escaping detection (at least for a little while). Our human nature, with an assist from modern culture, promotes the idea that solutions must be deep and complicated to be valuable. In most cases, nothing could be further from the truth. Lasting solutions are surprisingly simple.

In what ways might you be searching for a sophisticated answer when a simple solution is already available?