Add Link Play Play Alt Pause Prev Next Arrow More Arrow Back Download Download Link
Back to Blog

January 26, 2025 | Daily Devotionals | January 26

The Fridge Monkey

Martha was the jittery type and was worrying over the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Sir, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”

But the Lord said to her, “Martha, dear friend,[j] you are so upset over all these details! There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it—and I won’t take it away from her!”  ––Luke 10:40-42, TLB

I was chatting with my friend KC a few days ago and he was telling me about his precocious refrigerator. He says that when you close the fridge, it makes this little staccato noise, which sounds like a laughing monkey. He’s oiled the hinges, checked for missing screws and other malfunctions. No success.

But the thing is, KC can’t let it go. The mysterious little monkey that lives in his refrigerator—and only cackles when you close the fridge, not when you open it—has become KC’s own white whale. Like Ahab chasing Moby Dick, he’s determined to hunt down and eliminate the malevolent source.

It’s the little things in life that can get us. Am I right? Maybe your fridge doesn’t sound like a psycho spider monkey, but we all have things that niggle at us. The glove box on our car that randomly decides not to open (or pops open when it’s not supposed to). The light in the hallway that—no matter how many times you check the bulb, the breaker, or the wiring—just tends to flicker at will. The burner on your stove that tends to fluctuate—either burning your eggs or not boiling your water. There’s a phrase for these inconveniences: first world problems.

Here’s the thing about the little things: they can distract us from what’s really important. If we aren’t careful, we become like Martha rather than Mary: distracted by many things, when only One is needed (see today’s verse).

The extreme condition for those who have A LOT of little things that bother them is OCD. We all know folks who wash their hands 30 times a day, the neighbor who cannot tolerate even a single leaf in their yard, or the guy who washes and vacuums his car multiple times per week. Heck, there are entire shows dedicated to our weird obsessions—“My Strange Addiction,” “The OCD Project,” and “Hoarders,” just for starters.

What’s your bugaboo, pet peeve, obsession, or compulsion? Are life’s “little” distractions getting in the way of your ability to see, enjoy, and serve God as you were meant to? Remember that we have an enemy who will use any means necessary to keep us from a close, intimate relationship with Jesus.

If you need to, make a list of all the “small” things (and big) that are otherwise distracting, deflecting, or interfering with your ability to keep your focus on the Main Thing. Then pray through the list—or talk it through with someone—to start eliminating the distractions (large and small).

Don’t let your fridge monkeys keep you from the richness of what God wants for you.

Lord, I surrender life’s distractions to You—I lay them at Your altar and ask that Your Holy Spirit would remind me throughout the day of what’s truly important.

Join the Every Man Ministries newsletter

By joining you will receive daily devotionals straight to your inbox and much more