Sam Rayburn's Rule

"Don't stir up more snakes than you can kill at any one moment!"

Sure, it was his RULE of politics, but no one seriously believes it was ever only for politics, then or now.  Sam Rayburn, the long-serving Speaker of the House, was one of the most powerful leaders of the last 100 years.  His basic political rule works well for all of life, just from the sheer management element.

Politicians promise too much (because voters want too much).  Like the North-easterner who promised mill workers in a depressed area a full return of outsourced jobs.  Their average "former" pay:  $26/hour.  Foreign equivalent workers pay:  $3/hour.  Now that is several snakes all at once.  If you stir up all that emotion, how do you resolve it?  If you create an expectation, how do you satisfy it?  Who is it that makes water run uphill?

A college student graduates with a liberal arts degree and $200,000 indebtedness.  Now, how many snakes does THAT stir up all at once?   Best Rayburn rule for solving THAT:  don't EVER get INTO that position.

Have our cake and eat it too, and lose weight at the same time without exercise, and be a slim couch potato.  That, for some, is the multi-snake American ideal.  Won't work.  Best Rayburn rule for solving THAT:  don't try it all in the first place.

Jesus said that where your heart is, there will your treasure be.  Something comes first.  Doesn't sound like the Rayburn rule on the surface, but the two protocols are at least cousins!!!!

Don't try to life three lives at once.  Focus!

Get the one priority first, get the others after the first one is right.  Genesis to Revelation, an honorable and honoring relationship with God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is the FIRST one.  Get that going, and the rest flows easily.