Recently I read a story written by a woman who made her first metal-detector treasure hunt with her son and husband.
They were anxious for her to have a try at it. So, detector in hand she started a sweep of a 'new' area they were anxious to try out. But quickly the son cried out, "Mother you are going too fast! You've got to go slow or you'll miss the deeper things; the most valuable stuff is buried the deepest!"
Well, you are already ahead of this preacher, for you know the application that follows.
In all areas, of life we are admonished, "haste makes waste." Or, "slow down and live." "Slow down and smell the flowers along the way." "Fools are swift too run into trouble." On and on one could go with our aphorisms. After looking, shall we leap?
These are admonitions that may be applied to our every day lives. It is difficult not to make hasty judgments; it requires self discipline; to check the child's behavior before spanking; to see if it is a problem in his personal life that makes a neighbor, a husband or wife so grouchy. Elders in the church are required to look before leaping in their running of public church affairs or, for that matter, the workings in the church family. Every person they have contact with has a bearing on the whole.
In preaching, the minister who would feed a congregation must search as the men looking for treasure. One has to move slowly and methodically. Else he will have one scripture pitted against another. Or he will be emphasizing one facet of doctrine to the neglect of the others. He has to go through the scriptures sentence by sentence and word by word and letter by letter. Truly he is looking for buried treasure, and the slower he covers the ground, the better chance he has of finding the buried treasure.
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